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Essay On Physical Restraint

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Restraint and Seclusion: Helpful or Harmful?
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

Abstract

Students with severe mental health issues or developmental disorders display problem behaviors that put themselves and/or others at risk of injury. In these cases should restrictive interventions such as restraint or seclusion be implemented? The prevalence rate of these behaviors among students with developmental disabilities has been reported to range from 2-28% for aggression and 10-31% for self-injury (Borthwick-Duffy, 1994). When all less restrictive interventions have failed and students are at risk of injuring themselves or others can we justify restrictive treatment method? Restrictive treatment methods such as restraint …show more content…

Physical restraint involves using physical force to immobilize the child or prevent them from having freedom of movement. Physical restraint is also referred to as ambulatory restraint, manual restraint or therapeutic holding (American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric Emergency Medicine, 1997). This method prevents the child from freely moving their arms, legs, head or torso. Physical restraint can also include holding one component of a child (the wrist) for a brief period of time to interrupt or stop a behavior from happening such as picking or hitting. Council for Exceptional Children defines physical restraint as any method where one or more persons restrict another person’s freedom of movement, physical activity, or normal access to his or her body (CEC, 2009). It is a means for controlling that person’s movement, obtaining behavioral control, and establishing and maintaining safety for the out-of-control individual, other individuals, and staff. Physical restraints have been in widespread use across most human service, medical, juvenile justice, and education programs for a long period of time. Physical restraint of patients began in France in the late 18th century and later developed by Philippe Pinel & Jean Baptiste Pussin to prevent patients from injuring themselves or others (Fisher, 1994). Physical restraints have been used with emotionally disturbed children in the US since the …show more content…

The problems related to the use of restraint and seclusion have been categorized into five main areas. These areas include risks of physically and psychologically harm, lack of behavior change procedures taught, disparity, discrimination and lack of compliance with IDEA standards. The first area is that they carry a risk of someone being hurt, either the child or the adult. There are recorded instances where children have died from these procedures. There is also a risk of psychological problems including trauma. Recurrent use of these procedures carries a risk that the child’s development of safe and secure relationships with adults can be impaired. These procedures are highly problematic as interventions for controlling these challenging behaviors because they have been associated with an alarming amount of abuse and physical and psychological injury to children. (Dunlap et al). Much of the focus of the harmful effects of restraint includes a focus on the problems associated with the improper use of these procedures resulting in serious injuries and sometime death. A well-known report by The Hartford Courant estimated that there were 142 restraint related deaths in the United States between 1988-1998 (Weiss, 1998). This figure

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