Ligature can be distinguished from hanging by the strangling force of something other than the person’s full body weight. This type of strangulation cuts off blood flow to the brain and can be done in many ways besides vertical hanging. In most cases, this results in permanent brain damage, and sometimes death.

The term “Ligature” may not be familiar to some healthcare professionals. Ligature is not always a patient trying to harm themselves through the method of hanging. Ligature is usually performed by tying something around the neck, and applying pressure from a “tie off” point. In the past, this was often a showerhead, which has now been addressed by most facilities.

Traditionally, a “tie off” point has been considered as being above a patient’s head. However, a patient may tie off to something lower, even near floor level, and then lean away from the ligature point to achieve the suffocation or the loss of blood flow to the brain. The Joint Commission refers to these events as “sentinel events”.

Behavioral Safety Products was conceived to design and produce hospital components that are ligature resistant. We offer a broad line of products, which will dramatically reduce the occurrence of such events in your facility. Our line of products appears in both psychiatric/behavioral facilities as well as general, medical-surgical facilities. We have visited hundreds of psychiatric/behavioral and medical-surgical facilities over our 44 years of field experience, and believe our first hand experience and technical expertise is what makes our products so successful in keeping patients safe.

Want to learn more about how our products can help you avoid ligature in your facility? View our website at: besafepro.com