Jul 20 (NHK) - A group set up by psychiatric patients, their families and lawyers has called for strict rules on the use of physical restraints at hospitals in Japan.
The group was founded after a New Zealand man died from brain damage in May after being strapped to a bed for 10 days at a psychiatric hospital in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo.
Physical restraint is used at psychiatric hospitals to prevent patients from taking their lives or sneaking out of their wards. The health ministry says the practice was used in 2014 on 10,682 patients nationwide, almost double the number a decade before.
On Wednesday, Kyorin University Professor Toshio Hasegawa showed restraint devices at a news conference in Tokyo.
Hasegawa said restricting patients' movement with such powerful equipment negatively affects psychiatric treatment.
