cw child abuse

Thread.

This story about the use of seclusion rooms to address behavioral problems in special needs kids is terrifying. Very alarming to me personally because I worked on an inpatient psych unit that used these rooms. https://features.propublica.org/illinois-seclusion-rooms/school-students-put-in-isolated-timeouts/

On my unit, they were called "treatment rooms." They were padded and had one-way windows for observation. In the article, kids are put in these for simply failing to follow directions. That's clearly abuse. But what about for safety?

We ONLY put kids in the treatment room if there was an imminent threat to safety. In other words, the kid was being so violent that there was an immediate threat if injury or death to the kid, the staff, or the other kids on the unit. (I'm not exaggerating)

But where do you draw the line? Is it EVER ok to seclude a kid in a locked empty box? If not, what are the alternatives in an emergency like that?

I didn't know they used these rooms in regular schools. My facility was a highly regarded specialty children's hospital. So I assumed the treatments were all cutting edge and certainly safe and ethical

But we've also learned a lot more about autism since I worked there. I don't know what the point of this thread is. I'm just kind of alarmed that I was complicit in isolation special needs kids in crisis.