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Can staff in psychiatric hospitals be sued for restraining patients if they misjudge a situation?
For example, if they think a patient in a psychiatric unit is dangerous because they walked to fast towards them and were emotional but never made any obvious threatening gestures, could mental health staff be sued for jumping the gun.
Could it be considered unlawful confinement?? The same way a cop who arrests someone without probable grounds could be criminally charged for holding someone against their will as of a stranger had done the same thing.
2 Answers
- Michael ELv 77 years ago
The analogy is not the same. There are specific laws that shield police officers from civil suits.
AFAIK, there are no laws that specifically shield health care workers.
So it is unlikely (except in outrageously extreme situations) that a suit against an individual health care worker would succeed.
On the other hand, a suit against a hospital would be more likely to succeed. (The police analogy would be that a city loses a lawsuit that the officer is statutorily immune from.)
The other point is that if someone is already a patient in a psychiatric hospital, how much (if any) damage is it to restrain them than to keep them locked in the facility. In-a-straight-jacket vs. free-on-the-street is a lot more damaged than in-a-straight-jacket vs. locked-in-a-room.