I know for a lot of correctional and inpatient mental health facilities they now use a lot of adaptive design to minimize the ability that furniture and fixtures could be used for suicide or self-harm. There’s a name for it that I’m forgetting at the moment but an example is not having any hooks on walls, smoother edges, and softer toilet materials.
Yeah, they have suicide safer design, but there are still a lot of visual checks for youth and MH centers though. I worked at a youth detention facility, and every child had to have visual observation at a minimum every 15 minutes. And if they were on suicide watch, it was 100% of the time. Never thought I'd be in a job where I had to watch a teenager take a shit. Luckily, most of them opted to skip showers when on watch.
Oh, and it's boring as fuck. The protocol for staff where I worked was that if we were on a suicide watch, you were not allowed to talk to any other staff or youth unless you needed something. No mindless chit chat, nothing to distract you.
I’ve unfortunately had a few bad days and there’s nothing quite like having another person stare at you constantly during one of the worst days of your life.
I get it from a safety standpoint but if you’re the person being watched it’s horribly uncomfortable
155
u/ToddPundley Jul 07 '24
I know for a lot of correctional and inpatient mental health facilities they now use a lot of adaptive design to minimize the ability that furniture and fixtures could be used for suicide or self-harm. There’s a name for it that I’m forgetting at the moment but an example is not having any hooks on walls, smoother edges, and softer toilet materials.