6. Cage beds

Photo: Klatovy Hospital Psychiatric Department © MDAC

Cage beds “are great for geriatric patients and the mentally retarded: isolation or straps are much worse.”

Director of Kosmonosy Psychiatric Hospital

Don’t even ask me what I can feel, we have to shut out our emotions. It doesn’t help our health – it’s not therapeutic. We feel like we are free when we can walk.”

Woman restrained in a cage bed at Klatovy Hospital when monitors visited

This chapter sets out how cage beds are used in eight psychiatric hospitals. It starts with the experiences of patients and ex-patients, highlighting the restriction, lack of dignity and misuse of caging on the premise of ‘protection’. Following this, key observations made by the monitoring teams on the basis of on-site visits are presented. The chapter concludes by assessing the views of staff encountered during the monitoring missions.