There is growing recognition in forensic mental health that care needs to be provided in the least restrictive manner. It is not always clear what is most restrictive for patients and whether efforts to reduce restrictive practices are experienced as such by patients.
The Forensic Restrictiveness Questionnaire (FRQ) is a measure of how much patients in secure hospitals feel restricted by their care.
The FRQ has 15 items, using 5-point Likert scales. It is a self-report measure and should take 5-10 mins to complete.
it asks for instance: ‘I can choose what I want to do each day’; ‘The restrictions on the ward make sense’; and ‘I am given enough responsibility on the ward’.
Most of the items are static, meaning they might be sensitive to change over time.
More studies are needed to test the properties of FRQ but a pilot study conduct with 242 patients in England indicates the FRQ is a valid and internally consistent instrument.
This website provides links to download the FRQ and scoring instructions, recent publications using the FRQ, preprints of articles and contact details to reach the authors.
The FRQ was developed as part of an ESRC-funded Doctoral project at the University of Nottingham, UK with the help of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. All necessary ethical approvals were acquired.