The Ministry's march back to the Middle Ages

Restraint bed: Illustration from a Disability Rights California guide 

This month, Israel's Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs (משרד הרווחה והביטחון ההחברתי) announced that it will be enacting a law which will regulate the use of "restrictive protective measures" in institutions for people with disabilities.

The mere phrase sounds alarm bells. 

That is, for anyone concerned about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens and, of course, for those citizens themselves. 

But, somehow, these words are used acceptingly by most everyone else. That would explain why the infliction of such measures - which include restraint chairs, bed restraints and isolation - has thus far been dealt with only in the Ministry's internal procedures. 

The institutions have enjoyed extremely broad discretion in their use. According to the Ministry's recent memorandum, this practice has "increased the potential for harming the rights of people with disabilities and the staff working in the frameworks".

That new memorandum of the law states that a restrictive protective measure will be defined as one that 

"reduces the movement of a person in space, including the movement of his body, with the aim of maintaining the personal safety of the person or others from actual risk."

Beyond this, it does not specify the restrictive measures that will be regulated. Nor the duration and frequency of their use.

Moreover, once it is enacted, the use of such measures against a person will only be permitted after other options to prevent the danger have been examined and ruled out. The prior approval of professionals as will be stipulated in the regulations will also be required. 

And, finally, the use of these measures will be brought to a re-discussion once every period of time to be determined later.

However - and this creates a huge loophole - the amendment continues:

"In exceptional emergency cases that could not be foreseen in advance, it will be possible to take restrictive protective measures that were allowed to be used in the regulations in emergency cases without prior approval from the authorities, provided that their use is reported as soon as possible to the authority authorized to do so to be determined by the minister."

In other words, whenever the institution's employees deem a situation to be an "emergency" they are free to act as they please. Not surprisingly, advocates for the rights of people with disabilities are outraged by the Ministry's decision. 

Bizchut, The Center for the Human Rights of People with Disabilities, had already submitted a petition to the High Court protesting the use of such measures months prior to the memorandum.

The group's attorney, Vered Bar, now said of the impending amendment that it 

"reflects shocking perceptions regarding people with disabilities. We could not imagine a parallel procedure which allows restrictions regarding any other population."

She added that it 

"will allow the Minister to determine the use of restraints as he sees fit. Those staff members who have been exposed just this past year as having perpetrated violence, abuse and neglect will be the very ones to determine whether a person will be locked up or tied to a chair."

Naama Lerner from Hatnuah L'Atzmaut - the Movement for Independence, an organization working to promote "independent life with personal assistance for every person with a disability in Israel", warned that accepting the memorandum of the law would cast a "terrible stain on the State of Israel".

According to her, the "calming measures" that the Ministry will adopt include

"tying people to a heavy metal chair so that they cannot get up from it and move around or locking people in isolation rooms that have nothing but a thin mattress on the floor."

She explained that "These are means of intimidation, humiliation and abuse.". And noted that after receiving a permit, "it is unlikely that the caregiver in the institutions will comply with the usage restrictions that will be established."

This amendment is propelling us back to the middle ages.

But we may succeed in blocking its enactment by inundating the Ministry with our objections. Here is the link for lodging your complaint. The cutoff date is March 5, 2023

The following (translated by me from the Hebrew original) is an excerpt from the response of a person diagnosed with Autism to the proposed amendment: He is non-verbal and communicates only via his keyboard:

"The thin veil of civility that has covered society since dark times is crumbling. We are a society where there are laws against abuse of the helpless, like in advanced societies in the western world. A person is no longer put in a dungeon just because he looks different and behaves differently... And suddenly, someone in the Welfare Ministry woke up, scratched his scalp and enacted a law that means: the celebration is over. Enough, you've had enough. You are the disease, and we have a cure - punishment for "bad behavior"...  Someone in the Welfare office thinks we are very spoiled and need to be restrained. It was important to him to convey to us the message that life is not therapy but survival. A jungle!" [Source: Shavvim]

Let's not abandon him and others sharing his plight.