Mental health care and psychiatry is an evolving and contentiously developing practice that leads to continuous emerging issues.
One of these issues is the use of physical restraint on mentally ill people which some individuals accept and agree with whilst others disagree with it because it is a practice that is open to abuse and that it causes upset and distress to the individual being restrained.
The ethics surrounding the use of physical restraint when treating mental health patients is a contentious issue with both positive and negative implications. The National Health Service as a whole is a utilitarian enterprise and is based on the ethical utilitarian principle of ‘the greatest good for the greatest number.’
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory, it is the doctrine that actions are right if they are useful and benefit the majority and that the consequences alone determine whether an action is ethical or unethical.
Ethics is sometimes called morals or moral philosophy and it is concerned with fundamental principles of right and wrong behaviour; they affect individual’s …show more content…
Some health care professionals feel that by physically restraining patients they damage their relationship with the patient that physical restraint of the mentally ill is outdated and that it is a practice that is open to a number of abuses. They also feel that given the grave psychological and physical risks associated with physical restraint there is a compelling need for a common set of guidelines and national standards on the use of physical restraint in mental health (Mind 2011). Others feel that there is no alternative to physical restraint of abusive patients and that they have obligations to all in their care and if by allowing one person freedom of movement causes harm to others than there is no alternative but to use physical restraint (Royal college of Nursing,
One of these issues is the use of physical restraint on mentally ill people which some individuals accept and agree with whilst others disagree with it because it is a practice that is open to abuse and that it causes upset and distress to the individual being restrained.
The ethics surrounding the use of physical restraint when treating mental health patients is a contentious issue with both positive and negative implications. The National Health Service as a whole is a utilitarian enterprise and is based on the ethical utilitarian principle of ‘the greatest good for the greatest number.’
Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory, it is the doctrine that actions are right if they are useful and benefit the majority and that the consequences alone determine whether an action is ethical or unethical.
Ethics is sometimes called morals or moral philosophy and it is concerned with fundamental principles of right and wrong behaviour; they affect individual’s …show more content…
Some health care professionals feel that by physically restraining patients they damage their relationship with the patient that physical restraint of the mentally ill is outdated and that it is a practice that is open to a number of abuses. They also feel that given the grave psychological and physical risks associated with physical restraint there is a compelling need for a common set of guidelines and national standards on the use of physical restraint in mental health (Mind 2011). Others feel that there is no alternative to physical restraint of abusive patients and that they have obligations to all in their care and if by allowing one person freedom of movement causes harm to others than there is no alternative but to use physical restraint (Royal college of Nursing,