Supporting consumer self-management through staff education: The sensory approaches e-Learning project

The use of sensory approaches in mental health contexts has increasingly been recognised for its potential to support people with a mental illness to develop self-regulatory strategies. These approaches are compatible with the person-centred, trauma-informed, recovery approaches preferred in mental health, and have been shown to support decreased use of seclusion and restraint in mental health units. One of the main challenges to the use of sensory approaches in these settings is staff awareness and acceptance, with the need for staff training and support emphasised in numerous publications. One obstacle to this training, however, has been the need to take clinical staff offline.