Controversial face-down restraint still being used for mental health patients in England

NHS regulators advise avoiding prone restraint if at all possible. Photograph: Don Smith/Alamy

Mental health patients are being pinned face down by staff thousands of times a year, despite ministers and health experts repeatedly warning that it is dangerous.

Prone restraint, in which someone is held chest down to defuse an incident, has been a source of controversy for years and been involved in the death of a number of people with mental health problems.