Use of a Quiet Room on an Inpatient Unit

Removal to a quiet room is a commonly used behavioral technique to reduce aggressive and disruptive behaviors and decrease sensory stimuli in the management of children on inpatient psychiatric units. The use of the quiet room by nursing staff was systematically examined in a series of psychiatrically disturbed preadolescent children on an inpatient unit. The results indicate that the frequency and time spent in the quiet room decrease significantly over time during hospitalization and that the majority of the episodes involve voluntary self-seclusion. Furthermore, in the majority of the episodes the patients were quiet, and in half of the episodes they were able to explain the reason for quiet room usage. Results suggest that the quiet room may be a useful, therapeutic management tool that enhances self-control in children with serious psychiatric disturbances.