I was disturbed this week by a study out of Ontario.
Is this the best we can do for people in crisis?
The report highlights that 80 per cent of people with distress around mental health issues were admitted to general hospitals rather than to specialised psychiatric sites.
On the surface that does not sound like a problem, however we are told that “Compared to psychiatric hospital patients, the study found that control interventions were 1.5 times more likely in a general hospital setting, while the use of physical or mechanical restraints occurred 2.5 times more frequently.”
I am not surprised that the short newspaper article notes there is trauma associated with the use of restraint. I don’t know of the situations being faced by the participants but that doesn’t restrain me from being a little appalled by a few facts.