Safewards is a multimodal intervention aimed at reducing conflict and containment events in inpatient psychiatric settings. It has been implemented worldwide despite a lack of evaluation of the model. This article describes implementation of Safewards in a forensic mental health facility in Canada. The project took into account some recommendations from a randomised control trial of the effectiveness of Safewards and an evaluation of its implementation in another mental health facility in the UK. The article compares lessons learned in this project with findings from the UK evaluation, and makes more recommendations for future implementation projects in relation to education, staff attitude, workforce issues and adapting the interventions to forensic environments.