I have seen cell take outs of mentally ill inmates in a psych wing of the prison in Ohio. The guards went in with pepper spray, shields and body armour. The patient was extreme pain while they restrained him and carted him off to off to another room/cell. That was filmed in 2009 for all the world to see. I show the doco to a students when I do a teaching session. So not only does the US prison/mental health service intentionally cause physical pain but they film it and make a doco out of it.
Why should a person, just because they are mentally ill not be subjected to pain/physical force if they are hurting/killing someone. They are no different to anyone else. Violence is violence. If your daughter, son, mother father was being assaulted by someone with a mental illness would say to the police please dont cause them any pain as they have mental illness.
What do you do with a patient that randomly punches nursing staff in the face and doesnt care if you are male of female? You have done all the respect, caring, kindness and humour. Sometimes that just doesnt work and you are dealing with someone that is totally irrational that is totally out of control. Sometimes force is nessessary. If you get sacked,lose your registration, sued and prosecuted for defending yourself then thats a sad state of affairs.
On a side note:
We use no pepper spray, no tie down beds, no restraint chairs, no sheilds and no body armour. We do use physical restraint to contain the situation and seclusion for the minimum amount of time possible. On the rare occasion we use those leather restraint belts that go round the waist and bring the arms in to the waist.
