ABSTRACT
In discussions held with many professionals over the sixteen years that I have been training, it has been explained to me that there can be a therapeutic value in touching a person who is exhibiting aggressive behaviour, and that such intervention can enable the person’s behaviour to de-escalate. This has usually taken place within units where the use of touch has been discussed and agreed beforehand as a means of calming the individual. When used within these units, touch has been identified as a constructive and caring element and not as a coercive measure to ensure compliance. The guidelines around its use have also been within the framework of ‘good practice’ identified in the document, Guidance on Permissible Forms of Control in Children’s Residential Care1
and the Sir Herbert Laming letter, ‘The control of children in the public care: interpretation of the Children Act 1989’.2
