The increasing number of Americans living with some form of mental health Problem has prompted the need for treatment facilities to help tackle this problem. With the establishment of such facilities, ethical concerns has been raised about the available forms of treatment. Mostly, hospitals and other mental health facilities employ the use of a variety of treatments, including the use of anti-psychotic medications which are for the most part used in conjunction with other forms of therapy. In most cases, hospitals attempt to refrain from the overuse of such anti-psychotic medications, in favor of other less invasive methods. If a decision is made for it to be used however it is usually accompanied by some form of written or verbal consent from either a guardian or an individual that has been deemed mentally capable of consenting to treatment. Combing the use of medications and other forms of therapy is generally enough to effectively limit an individual’s symptoms, enabling them to return to the community and be productive citizens.
Sociologists view an individual’s body as an agent of communication, especially as it relates to mental health, and identify one problem with “the disciplined body”; the inability to maintain self-control. Unlike an infant with a complete lack of self-control, a fully grown adult is expected to have the ability maintain or conceal the loss of such control. However, when an individual has completely loss the ability to maintain self-control, a situation might arise in which there is need for use of medications without
consent from the patient. Others might arise in which the is dire need for
mechanical restraints such as in a situation in which safety can’t be
guaranteed .Implementation of such treatment routines often raises the
possibility of ethical violations, for instance what are some effects to the
mental health of an individual whose mental well-being is already compromised? How might such loss in agency through the trauma experienced from being physically restrained affect the overall well-being of an already compromised mental health? In such instances of complete loss of self-control, a facility designed for care of mental illness, and equipped with a team of Doctors psychologists and nurses is expected to come up with techniques that can be applied to therapeutically remedy the situation and allow the body to adjust to a stressful situation at hand.
From inferences drawn from past experiences, mental health
professionals are beginning to design new and better ways to dealing with these problem. At the top of their list of priorities is coming up with ways that help prevent mental health behaviors from escalating in the first place. One technique is to instill policies with strong guidelines on procedures to follow when faced with such escalating behaviors. One of such procedures consists of the use of a set of choices termed “Triangle of choices” to help mental health professional deescalate seemingly agitated behavior. Such choices ranges from offering several therapeutic items of choice to an agitated individual like music or quiet time to allow for reflection. In some cases, prescribed doses of anti-anxiety medications can be used only after the first two attempts at de-escalation has failed. With successful implementation of these techniques, it is only on seldom occasions in which such behaviors escalate past the verbal stage and there is limited chances of a traumatic experience since there is no use of physical restraints or forced medications. With the sudden jump in number of incidents of police brutality due to alleged failure of compliance by citizens, implementing techniques aimed at deescalating evident loss of self-control could drastically reduce such incidents and limit the number of deaths from police brutality.
Unruly Bodies 
In terms of body policing, I think you pose an important question. When is someone considered not in control of their own body? At what point can those bodies be policed? Are individuals who battle mental illness allowed to harm themselves but not others? I think another important point is that bodies of color are also more highly stigmatized in this way. There is often a double standard when it comes to mental health.