Restraint chair?? Yes, believe it or not, here in the Northern Territory the police (at least in Alice Springs) still use a restraint chair for people who are self harming. If they don't wish to take them to ED for assessment and sedation or are unable to due to lack of staff then they use the chair. Their reason being it takes around 6 police officers off the road for 2 hours to restrain someone at ED until the medication takes effect. Staff they believe they can't afford to take off the road.
Now this doesn't sit well for me at all, and I'm having a hard time trying to make this acceptable in my mind. Maybe I'm just ignorant and they do this in other Aussie and New Zealand Police Stations also, though I hope not!
The MENTAL HEALTH AND RELATED SERVICES ACT was only introduced in 2002 and the Memorandum of Understanding between Police and the Mental Health Service is even newer than that. So this may explain to a degree why some things I consider to be archaic are still being practised here. But when I questioned the watch house staff in Katherine about it they said they don't have a restraint chair here, but they really needed and wanted one.
SERIOUSLY??
So do the mental health staff here use restraint chairs in the acute ward? Who would know! There is definitely this written in the Mental Health and Related Services Act here: "mechanical restraint means the application of a device (including a belt, harness, manacle, sheet and strap) on a person's body to restrict the person's movement". It seems to suggest they do use such restraints! When I read that, I get images of Hannibal Lector from Silence of the Lambs. Eckkk
I will find out and let you all know!
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