Ligature-Resistant Furnishings: Why They Matter
Anti-ligature furniture is used in the healthcare and correctional industries to protect those in their care from self-harm. Many facilities include ligature-resistant furniture that keeps patients safe by eliminating points where ligatures may be secured. Patients or inmates are less likely to harm themselves or others without any points where material could be tied. Suppliers offer attractive ligature-resistant furnishings that create warm, comfortable rooms.
Features of Protective Furniture
Manufacturers who create furniture with ligature resistance design products for safety and durability. Products include safe toilet paper holders, door hardware, faucets, and room furnishings like beds, chairs, and tables. Each item is created to minimize unsupervised patients’ risk of harming themselves.
Protective features can include:
- Open shelving instead of drawers
- Bolt-down options
- Continuous piano hinges instead of conventional hinges
- J-bars rather than hangar rods
- Wardrobe doors with slanted tops so nothing can be looped around them
How Furnishings Reduce Self-Harm
According to the architectural publication Bulding Talk, approximately 75% of patients who commit suicide in psychiatric treatment centers use strangulation or hanging. That is often because conventional furnishings include features that make it simple for patients to tie materials around them. Ligature-resistant furnishings have no points that can be used in this way.
For instance, safe designs include features found in conventional bathrooms. Restrooms with ligature-resistant designs have a homey appearance but include unique sinks, handwashing fixtures, and showers. Even accessories are created with options that help prevent self-harm.
Standard features of the ligature-resistant design include invisible or minimal fixings that use non-standard bolt and screw heads. Per Public Sector Build Journal (PSBJ) experts, furnishings also feature rounded edges and sloping faces on cabinets, making it difficult to tie off ligatures. Designs eliminate obvious protruding features.
Elimination of Crucial Low Anchor Points
Most assume that suicide risk is associated with ligature points above head height. However, studies show that suicides often occur when a ligature anchor point is below the head or sometimes waist height. A conventional environment can include many anchor points at various levels.
For example, the term “hanging” is typically linked to ceiling hazards, but that is not always the case. Potentially dangerous items like TV cabinets, radiators, and even light switch covers can all be located well below head height. The radiator used is just as dangerous as the curtain rail. With these issues in mind, ligature-resistant furnishings eliminate dangerous anchor points at all levels.
Increased Patient Well-Being
Ligature-resistant design can improve the patient experience in two critical ways. Modern products are designed for beauty as well as function, so they help improve an environment’s aesthetics. When rooms are safer, they also allow patients more independence.
Furnishings are created to be attractive and part of a calming, welcoming environment. Careful design ensures that patients are comfortable as well as safe. Suppliers offer colors and styles for any room design.
A lack of independence is common among those in care since they often need constant supervision to prevent self-harm. However, anti-ligature furnishings can allow patients to safely spend more time on their own, which helps foster a sense of trust. Items like an anti-ligature TV cabinet make it possible for low-risk users to operate appliances safely.
Concerns about self-harm are common in many healthcare and correctional settings. Ligature-resistant furnishings help minimize this risk by eliminating points that can be used to secure ligatures needed for strangulation or hanging. Attractive, carefully designed anti-ligature furnishings can protect patients and help foster their overall well-being.
