A health scholar and the family of an English teacher from New Zealand who died after being tied to his hospital bed for 10 days announced Wednesday the establishment of a group that will push for a review on the use of physical restraints at psychiatric hospitals.
The group, Seishinka Iryo no Shintai Kosoku wo Kangaeru Kai, which can be translated as "A group to review restraints at psychiatric hospitals," is headed by Toshio Hasegawa, professor of health sciences at Kyorin University in Tokyo who has researched human rights abuses relating to the strapping down of patients at psychiatric hospitals across the country.
The group's establishment was spurred by the May 17 death of Kelly Savage, a 27-year-old JET teacher who lived in Kagoshima Prefecture. On May 10, he had a heart attack at Yamato Hospital in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, where he had been hospitalized for 10 days after suffering a manic episode linked to bipolar disorder while visiting his brother.