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We should understand that the use of physical restraints and seclusion violates human rights and must be reduced.

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Toshio Hasegawa, a professor of psychiatry at Kyorin University. He was commenting on an international study that showed patients undergoing treatment at psychiatric hospitals in Japan are physically restrained and isolated much longer and more frequently than patients in other countries.

© Asahi Shimbun

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showed patients undergoing treatment at psychiatric hospitals in Japan are physically restrained and isolated much longer and more frequently than patients in other countries.

Can't say I am surprised somehow, not that the psychiatric profession is a model of compassion in many countries.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Physical restraint of psychiatric patients is a violation of international human rights as is keeping them in seclusion. They need therapy and group sessions.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Extract from research article by BMC psychiatry 2020

............The mean length of stay in psychiatric care beds in Japan (mean length of hospital stay among discharged patients) was approximately 500 days in 1990 but fell to under 300 days in 2011 and further decreased to approximately 266 days in 2018........................................We are currently striving to integrate care to create a health care system centered on community-based integrated care. Several other countries, particularly in Western Europe, have already been actively transitioning from institutional care to community-based care. Based on our findings in this study and on these efforts in other countries, we conclude that it may be pertinent to consider the comprehensive structure of future mental health care.

Still a lot of work to do here in Japan.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I think one problem in the past in the more economic-fundamentalist west has been that "community-based care" has simply meant turfing these people out onto the streets to fend for themselves when the rich have baulked at the budgets for real care and implemented belt-tightening or austerity or whatever else they call redistribution to themselves.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

I would think involuntary confinement violates human rights and must be reduced...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

MoonrakerToday 02:53 pm JST

I think one problem in the past in the more economic-fundamentalist west has been that "community-based care" has simply meant turfing these people out onto the streets to fend for themselves when the rich have baulked at the budgets for real care and implemented belt-tightening or austerity or whatever else they call redistribution to themselves.

Some people would say a life on the street is better than a life in prison, effectively. Not everybody goes from the institution onto the street, though: families are forced to house their loved ones in humane settings if they can afford it. Some government assistance is also available to the disabled, mentally and physically.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Sorry, TaiwanisNotChina, I was not permitted to reply to you about the move from institution to street in the west. I had some links too. I mean to say, there are only 6 comments here so it's not like our conversation is diverting things greatly. Meanwhile, on other threads, some seem to be able to post stuff not even remotely relevant.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I think one problem in the past in the more economic-fundamentalist west has been that "community-based care" has simply meant turfing these people out onto the streets

I think that is probably true. There were many changes in the 1970s and 1980s. Some were perhaps for good reasons - reducing the number of people forced into psychiatric hospitals. But other changes simply reduced the level of institutional care. It became highlighted by some of the actions of Ronald Regan. And I recall changes in Scotland where the number and nature of homeless people changed.

https://www.salon.com/2013/09/29/ronald_reagans_shameful_legacy_violence_the_homeless_mental_illness/

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/the-demise-of-the-asylum-and-the-rise-of-care-in-the-community-8352927.html

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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