‘Traumatic as hell’: Patients describe what it’s like to be restrained in the ER
Researchers interviewed 25 patients who’d been physically restrained in the ER about the experience and the effect it had on their mental and physical health.
Sometimes, in especially intense moments in the emergency room, a staffer might have to take the drastic step of physically restraining a patient who is in mental health crisis.
ER staffers themselves have described it as an exceedingly difficult process, rife with the tension between providing good care and feeling physically threatened. And it raises questions that providers alone can’t answer: How does a patient feel during the experience, and how does that affect a person’s care and recovery?
To begin to answer those questions, researchers at Yale interviewed 25 patients who had been restrained in
