OLRS opposes state agencies' recommendation to continue dangerous face-down restraints
Following the homicide of a youth in a treatment center during a face-down restraint, the Governor charged an interagency workgroup with creating a statewide policy on use of prone restraint. Prone restraints are nationally recognized as dangerous, and documented as the cause of numbers of deaths of children and adults.
The interagency workgroup has now sent its recommendations to the Governor (read the workgroup's recommendations - PDF file). While the recommendations bar "prone restraint," they permit "prone containment," defined as a brief physical or manual face-down restraint. The workgroup's recommendation would continue the dangerous and potentially lethal use of face-down restraints.
The Ohio Legal Rights Service (OLRS) advised the workgroup that it is strongly opposed to any restraint that has the potential to restrict an individual's ability to breathe or compromises respiratory and cardiac functions. Prone containment, like prone restraint, causes injuries and death.
The seven state departments on the workgroup include Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, Education, Health, Jobs and Family Services, Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities, Mental Health, and Youth Services.
Read OLRS' May 1, 2009 letter to the interagency workgroup (PDF file) opposing its recommendations, and warning that the workgroup's directives will not remedy the abuse, trauma and deaths experienced by children and adults with disabilities during seclusion and restraint.
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Article posted May 8, 2009
