Files: Arkansas mental-health site used 'inappropriate' force on kids

A Forrest City mental-health site used "physical injury or threat of bodily harm" to manage childrens' behavior, even after regulators found out and asked for a fix, state records show.

Perimeter Behavioral of Forrest City entered a corrective agreement with Arkansas officials in July after a slew of citations, according to files obtained under the state's open-records law. Among other problems, employees failed "to use the minimal force" during physical restraint holds of children, the agreement says.

In one incident, camera footage showed a child "being slammed over his back and on to the floor" by a staff member, the agreement signed by the facility's administrator says. In another event, a child injured his wrist during an employee's "inappropriate" restraint hold of him. Workers in most incidents the document describes were fired.

The agreement is the third time this year that Arkansas officials formally upbraided a youth psychiatric center over episodes that hurt or could have harmed patients. It adds to a pattern of troubling lapses at facilities treating children with mental-health conditions and disabilities.

Read more: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/sep/06/files-arkansas-mental-health-site-used/