Norway’s Sivilombodet has issued a scathing assessment of the country’s psychiatric healthcare system. Following inspections of 13 acute psychiatric wards over the past year, the watchdog reports that patients are being subjected to unlawful, long-term mechanical restraint, with some individuals confined in belts for as long as 18 days.
The findings, released on November 5, 2026, detail a systemic failure to adhere to legal requirements that dictate mechanical restraint should be used only as an absolute last resort in acute, dangerous situations. Instead, Sivilombodet inspectors found that continuous assessments of restraint necessity were either severely deficient or entirely absent across all 13 inspected locations, including acute units at Sørlandet Sykehus, Sykehuset i Vestfold, Nordlandssykehuset, Helse Bergen, Lovisenberg Diakonale Sykehus, and Akershus Universitetssykehus (Ahus), NRK reported.
Documented failures in patient care and hygiene
The investigation paints a grim picture of daily life for patients under restraint. In one instance, an individual was left in a restraint bed for 42 hours despite having a broken hand. In another documented case, a patient was left in their own excrement because staffing shortages meant they could not receive assistance for basic toilet needs. The report also highlights the improper use of spit hoods in rooms equipped with restraint beds and the use of transport belts during inter-hospital transfers, practices the ombudsman identifies as potential human rights violations.
Helga Ervik, head of the unit for prevention at Sivilombodet, notes that the documentation provided by hospitals frequently failed to justify the continued use of restraints. “We see throughout that it is poorly described in the medical records why the patient is still in belts,” Ervik said. “In many cases, there is also poor documentation of what has been done to get the patient out of the belts.”
Many patients experience the use of belts as degrading and very burdensome; they become afraid and remember it as a very traumatic experience.
The ombudsman’s report emphasizes that the psychiatric wards often kept patients in restraints even when they were described in their own journals as calm and cooperative.
The struggle for national oversight and accountability
The controversy surrounding the use of force in Norwegian mental healthcare is not new. In 2011, a patient died while in restraints, and a 2019 government-appointed committee recommended phasing out the legal basis for belt restraint over a three-year period. Despite initial government support for this transition, the Sivilombodet report confirms that illegal, long-term belt use remains a persistent reality in acute units across the country.
To address these systemic issues, Sivilombodet has proposed several mandatory measures for the Ministry of Health and Care Services. These include the establishment of a fully transparent, publicly accessible national registry detailing the use of all forms of coercion in mental health, including frequency and duration. The ombudsman calls for a statutory duty for institutions to work systematically on the prevention of coercion and the implementation of strict knowledge requirements for staff authorized to make emergency decisions regarding restraints.
Hospital responses to the oversight findings
Hospital leadership has begun to address the findings as they emerge.
Aasen maintained that the clinic manages individuals in acute psychological crises who may pose a high risk of violence. He noted that while these situations are complex, the hospital maintains a responsibility to manage them effectively while ensuring that treatment eventually reduces the need for such restrictive measures.
