[Inpatient Mental Health Care without Mechanical Restraint, Seclusion or Compulsory Medication]

Mechanical restraint is a common occurance in Germany's mental health care facilities; less common though not unusual are seclusion and compulsory medication. The authors describe a model to calculate additional resources required to provide mental health care without any of these forms of coercive measures. An analysis of actual clinical situations that led to mechanical restraint provides information of the 1:1, 2:1 or 3:1 intensive support necessary to cope with crises in inpatient mental health care. The additional resources required to provide inpatient mental health care without mechanical restraint, seclusion or compulsory medication would be at 4 % of the annual hospital budget. A national shortage of skilled nursing staff appears to be a limiting factor in moving towards a human-rights based mental health care.