Restraint Addendum

In case anyone surfs in looking for restraint info based on the last post... oh boy, this is a dangerous subject.

There's a lot of controversy about the basket hold, besides the problem that I listed. If it's performed the wrong way, it could asphyxiate a child:

No Charges To Be Filed In Boy's "Basket Hold" Death
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
February 28, 2006

INGRAM, TEXAS--Criminal charges will not be filed in connection to the death of a 12-year-old boy who died after being physically restrained at a residential treatment center.

A Kerr County grand jury on February 17 found no evidence of a crime in the December 4 death of Christening "Mikie" Garcia at Star Ranch.

The Kerryville Daily Times reported that Garcia, an "emotionally disturbed" youth, died after a worker restrained the boy with his arms across his chest and his hands held behind him, in what is called a "basket hold".

The Travis County Medical Examiner had ruled Garcia's death was the result of "suffocation during physical restraint."

Kerr County Sheriff Rusty Hierholzer had said the boy had been placed in "time out" after refusing to obey staff orders, but that he started banging his own head against a concrete sidewalk, "so they had to restrain him."

The "experienced" staff member, whose name has not been disclosed, then held Garcia until he stopped breathing. Attempts to resuscitate the boy were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

There are also a fair number of cases in which children held in face-down restraint positions suffocated to death.

I'm horrified and scared by these stories. Whenever we hold down Sunny, we never do anything that could obstruct his breathing, or place pressure on his chest or stomach.

It's such a depressing subject. We were led to believe in class that "restraint is something you can rely on too much" and you should be able to "defuse the situation" first. Not being able to defuse the situation does make me feel like a failure. So I wish they had been a little more realistic on this point, and taught us good restraint technique.

However, it's good to keep in mind the principle that restraint can become a kind of addictive crutch. It starts to seem easier to go straight to Plan B instead of trying Plan A first. I hope we'll be able to phase it out soon. I really, really hate it.