Note of Caution to Army Hospital Psychiatry Department
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) recommended that the psychiatry department of an army hospital should devise a way to ensure thorough compliance with the isolation and physical restraint guidelines upheld by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and should issue a note of caution and provide human rights training to a medical officer who did not duly heed the guidelines.
In December 2007, a complaint was filed with the Commission by a man aged 24 against a medical officer of the psychiatry department of the ** Army Hospital. The complainant alleged that in September 2006, the medical officer had put him in four-limb restraints (his wrists and ankles bound to a bed) for 48 hours and kept him isolated for 72 hours (alone in a protection room, separated from the other patients) after he had objected to the medical officer's decision not to permit his discharge in response to his request for discharge while hospitalized at the hospital in question.
The NHRCK initiated an investigation and confirmed the facts that (i) on the day the complainant requested the medical officer (the respondent) to permit his discharge, the respondent explained that he had to be hospitalized until the results of the psychological assessment came out, (ii) after hearing this explanation, the complainant physically attacked the respondent, and (iii) because the violence had been perpetrated by a patient (the complainant), the respondent did not take such measure as legal action or a request for discipline, but instead isolated and physically restrained the complainant according to Article 46 of the Mental Health Act.
The NHRCK does not see any issue in the respondent's execution of isolation and physical restraint in response to the complainant's violence for the purpose of controlling the complainant. However, considering that isolation and physical restraint are last-resort measures taken only when a patient might cause a serious injury to himself/herself or another person, these measures must be executed in complete compliance with the procedures laid down in the applicable guidelines.
