Hydrotherapy

In all my years of psych nursing, this "therapy" is new to me. What is the therapeutic benefit of this? What was it to accomplish? It sounds like abuse.

Back in the dark ages of mental health, cold water blankets were wrapped around agitated people. The rationale was that the person't body heat would warm the water up and then comfort them. It is not used today. I cannot think of one plausible rationale for cold water baths. Warm water, yes, but not cold water. I would think inducing hypothermia would be detrimental to the child's health and a huge safety risk.

I want to also say that when I worked at this facility in the mid 1990's, most of the staff would use this type of "Treatment" as a means of punishment. Like I said before, back then Texas had very poor child safety laws in regards to restraints in adolescent RTC's. I very vividly remember cold bathtubs with the canvas top restraining device preventing the patients from leaving the tub. This facility over utilized Physical Holds, Seclusion, and this Hydrotherapy Treatment as measure of disaplineor retaliation. During the Hydrotherapy Procedure, the LVN and ward staff would forcefully remove the kids clothing, fill the tub with water, medicate the kids, and then monitor the kids T/P/R every 30 minutes.

The hydrotherapy that I know of is a form of CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine), just like aromatherapy, massage, etc. Anyway, this hydrotherapy is the same as whirlpool or warm bath to relax the patient. Personally, warm bath relaxes me....but the hydrotherapy that you're refrring to where a child is immersed in cold water sounds inhumane and I wouldn't call it "therapy."