The use of physical restraint on kids with eating disorders is harrowing
The IndependentThe best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. One organisation told me that they had started to provide mental health support to medical staff carrying out restraint under these circumstances. Under Section 6 of the Mental Health Units Act 2018, medical staff are required by law to record the use of restraint in all mental health settings. Last year, after this case was raised with me, I asked Steve Barclay, the health secretary, if he would publish all data his department holds on the use of restraint on acute child medical wards. As a result of our chronically overstretched and underfunded mental health services, tier 4 specialist beds are hard to come by, so more and more mental health patients are being treated in general medical wards, where the usual guidance around the use of restraint – to only use it once all other routes have been exhausted – is not consistently applied.
History of this topic
How we investigated the use of restraints on psychiatric patients
LA Times
Mental health hospitals are ‘making children worse’, leading charity warns
The Independent
Mentally ill children dumped on wrong hospital wards
The IndependentDiscover Related
Strapped down: A Times investigation into the high use of restraints at L.A. General Medical Center
LA Times
