Mental Health Watchdog and Task Force Against Institutional Racism Leader say Michigan could potentially lead the way for national restraint death reform

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, June 30, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Kalamazoo County, Michigan Medical Examiner’s office has ruled that 16-year-old African American Cornelius Frederick’s death following a restraint procedure at Lakeside Academy, a psychiatric facility, was a homicide.

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Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a 51-year mental health industry watchdog group and Rev. Frederick Shaw, head of the NAACP Inglewood-South Bay Branch, commended authorities and Michigan state agencies for quickly acting on the death.

Shaw, who recently started a Task Force against racism in the mental health system, comprising African American doctors, psychologists, ministers, attorneys and advocates, said he will present evidence to members of the Michigan Black Caucus to support a ban on restraint use in all state and private psychiatric hospitals.

CCHR worked with others to obtain reforms to federal regulations regarding restraint use in mental health facilities following a Hartford Courant series on restraint deaths in 1998 that led to a Congressional Hearing on the issue.

Journal Star, 15 May 2020, Corey Williams, “Lawsuit: Michigan Teen Screamed ‘I Can’t Breathe’ During Restraint,” WPVE, 22 June 2020, Patricia R. Recupero, et al., “Restraint and Seclusion in Psychiatric Treatment Settings: Regulation, Case Law, and Risk Management,” Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, Dec. 2011, 39 (4) 465-476;