From The Seattle Times: “A patient was already tied to the bed, their ankles and wrists bound by thick Velcro straps.

From behind, a mental health worker pulled a mesh hood over their head. Another injected the young adult with medicine. A third gripped the hood, holding their neck tight against the mattress.

The patient’s lips, pressed against the mesh, sucked for air like a fish. In less than two minutes, six staff at Recovery Place Kent, an inpatient psychiatric facility in a suburb south of Seattle, had wrested the patient into total submission by relying on a spit hood, a form of restraint many experts say should never be used on people being treated for mental illness.

A Seattle Times investigation has found staff in medical settings across Washington and in at least 28 other states have used spit hoods over the past decade to subdue or control psychiatric patients and risk psychological distress, suffocation and even death in the process.”

Article →

The post When Hospitals Use Spit Hoods on Patients, No One is Watching appeared first on Mad In America.

IPAK-EDU is grateful to Mad In America as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More