Governor signs executive order to ban prone restraints
Governor Strickland, on August 3, issued an executive order to ban the use of prone restraints by state agencies. Earlier this year, the Ohio Legal Rights Service (OLRS) urged the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to prohibit the use of this restraint method and called for other state department directors to act immediately to prohibit prone restraints in all settings. Ohio joins five other states which have banned prone restraints according to a report from the National Disability Rights Network.
The executive order, according to a press release from the Governor's Office, "establishes minimum acceptable standards to make sure restraint is used properly, by a trained individual, and only when absolutely necessary to ensure safety and prevent harm."
Prone restraints, which involve subduing a person in a face down position, have been linked to several deaths including a 17-year-old girl who died at a children's residential treatment facility in northeast Ohio during a prone restraint episode.
The executive order is the result of recommendations from a seven-agency workgroup. The order also creates the Ohio Policy Committee on Restraint and Seclusion.
For more information
Article posted August 4, 2009
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