Mental Patient Tethered To Wall Sparks Outrage In The Netherlands

Mental illness afflicts many people- from depression and anxiety to the more dangerous psychotic disorders like paranoia and schizophrenia, dealing with it can be very challenging, at best. Trying to find the right cocktail of medications to help treat people is very difficult. Some medications can even exacerbate the problem and actually cause suicidal thoughts. But it's those people who suffer from disorders like schizophrenia that oftentimes can create moral dilemmas in terms of treatment, particularly for those who are violent.

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There are drugs that can help those with paranoid and schizophrenic thoughts, but if the patient chooses to stop the medication, which they often do, they can revert to their erratic behaviour. Not all of them are violent, but there are some who are and it is those that are the most challenging.

Restraining violent patients has often been a necessity, to protect both the patient and others around them, but that is now being called into question. A Dutch filmmaker brought to national attention the controversy regarding methods of restraining, when a documentary film about a violent 18-year-old mental patient was aired on public television.

Brandon van Ingen, has been in a mental hospital since 2007. What has everyone up in arms is the fact that van Ingen is "tethered to a wall" According to Marlies Veldhuijzen van Zanten-Hyllner (State Secretary for Public Health) "Brandon's issue is so serious that he must be restricted in his freedom for the sake of his own safety and that of others. Because of this, Brandon consistently makes use of a band that he fastens himself when he is in the presence of his attendants and other visitors. Whenever there is no one present and at night, the band is loosened."

Van Ingen is one of those that hears voices that prod him to do "bad and dangerous things", and though one might think it's cruel to have him tied up during those times he has visitors, what about the safety of those in his presence. If he is that dangerous, how else can the hospital authorities ensure that he doesn't harm someone. What are the alternatives- sedation? Obviously medication isn't helping. And it's not as if he is tied up for the duration of the day, he supposedly has access to his own apartment.

The tether actually is no different than those child tethers that some parents use for children who have a tendency to roam.

And in the case of van Ingen, though it might seem cruel to some, if it saves an innocent person's life, then so be it.

Source:: CNN