Overview
Overview
Safe Steps is a clinician-developed practice model that supports mental health teams in responding to consumer distress with confidence, compassion and consistency.
Created to meet the real-world needs of frontline staff, Safe Steps provides a consistent approach to managing distress and aggression in inpatient settings.
At its core Safe Steps offers a structured framework for collaborative de-escalation – building self-awareness, relational skills, and situational sensitivity to restore safety, support recovery, and create strength-based solutions.
About the Safe Steps framework
The framework was designed and tested in a number of Australian acute inpatient mental health units – environments where staff regularly support people with complex needs and high levels of emotional distress.
The framework is designed to adapt to the complexities of real-time ward dynamics, supporting professional judgement while providing clear, structured de-escalation strategies.
The training equips teams with practical strategies and provides a consistent way to:
- Stay composed and support self-regulation in high-stress moments
- Recognise early warning signs and respond with confidence
- Build and protect therapeutic rapport
- Minimise restrictive or reactive measures
- Protect safety and dignity for everyone involved
Impact on restrictive and coercive practice in mental health units
Our single site pilot and multi-site-controlled study confirmed positive impacts on reducing restrictive practices in acute mental health services.
Reduction in %
Seclusion
(single-site)
Seclusion
(multi-site)
IMI psychotropics
Restraint
Total restrictive practice
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a Translational Research Grant from the NSW Health Office of Health and Medical Research, NSW Health, Mid North Coast and Western Sydney Local Health Districts, and Southern Cross University, Faculty of Health.