Apparently, there are differing policies on this depending on the hospital:
Sampson said she went to the hospital for treatment of a severe migraine headache, but was moved to a psychiatric unit when she admitted struggling with self-destructive impulses. She said she pleaded to be allowed to keep at least her pants on before the strip search, but the nurse refused . . .. . .In a letter to Sampson, hospital officials said they were sorry she had such a terrible experience, but stood by their strict policy of searching psychiatric patients for their own benefit.
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This is a necessary process, as psychiatric patients may be at risk for harming themselves — and the staff — with hidden weapons. I know this from personal experience, but the patient fortunately suffered minimal injury and the staff was unharmed. As embarrassing as it may have been for this physician, it is a good policy.
Well, one thing is for sure it will certainly decrease the number of women who disclose severe depression to their physician at Beth Israel. Aren’t there any female staff in the psych dept at that hospital? If someone is depressed because of sexual abuse (and who wouldn’t be) does it make a whole lot of sense to get five men to strip search her so they can help her with her depression?
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