So how do ERs and mental health facilities manage to deal with violent patients without inflicting serious injury or death?
I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing happening at the hands of health care workers.
So how do ERs and mental health facilities manage to deal with violent patients without inflicting serious injury or death?
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a thing happening at the hands of health care workers.
Funny you should say this. My best friend is an art therapist, and she worked on the seriously mentally disturbed ward at Billings Hospital, which is located on the University of Chicago campus on the south side of Chicago. In particular, this ward had many schizophrenic patients (interestingly, a fair amount were students and college profs from the nearby U of C campus). They had ward watchers on duty all the time for when patients acted out or got violent. My friend was on the ward when one of these patients attacked one of the shrinks who had been backed up to a wall, and they had to tear the patient off of the worker. They also used restraints when a patient got violent. So don’t tell me about how ER workers, etc. do it; usually they have police backup if they think a mental type is dangerous, and in the wards they have workers to handle such matters. You need to get on more wards yourself to find out the reality. By the way, most wards have locked doors. Even in nursing homes, some of the more disturbed geriatrics get violent, and you’d be surprised at the strength they can still show when infuriated. At many nursing homes they will isolate on one side of the dining room those that are more deranged, as they will pick fights or throw food. Get with it, get in reality land.