Following scathing reports, New Zealand is vowing to eliminate the use of seclusion rooms in mental health care.
The five-year programme is scheduled to start in March and the goal is to eliminate the practice by 2020.
A bill to ban the use of seclusion in schools was passed in Parliament in May last year, after it emerged a seclusion room had been used as a punishment at a Miramar school in Wellington and at Ruru Specialist School in Invercargill.
The use of such rooms for people with severe autism has been criticised by advocates, and in a report by the Human Rights Commission.
Health Quality and Safety Commission programme lead Dr Clive Bensemann, said eliminating the practice was something mental health patients and families had asked for themselves.
"This is something that the sector has asked for, this programme, and it runs for five years and seclusion is one of the areas that the programme will focus on."
He said the work would build on what had already been done since 2009, which has led to a 65 percent reduction in use of seclusion across New Zealand.
"Some DHBs in the country have already achieved zero seclusion for periods of time, but we also know that there's great variation across.
The 2016 director of mental health's annual report said more than 800 adults and 102 young people were held in seclusion in that year, with about 990 people across all inpatient services held in seclusion at least once.
"We do know that seclusion is something that staff use as a last resort and as I've said staff tend to see it reduced and eliminated if possible because we know it can harm consumers themselves."
