Hi, I'm a medical student and still learning, but I thought I might be able to provide some resources that I have had access to and others that I've come across.
I wanted to provide a FAQ document from Alberta Health Services (a provincial health authority in Canada) that outlines the "Restraint as a Last Resort" policy. It mentions consent in various contexts. It's supposed to apply to hospital staff, but I imagine some of it can translate to different healthcare settings (including EMS).
There is also an AHS webpage that includes a bunch of different resources and toolkits for restraints and alternatives. Again, geared towards clinical settings, but maybe there is something that you can find useful for your specific job and location.
I also found some interesting articles in peer-reviewed journals (no pay wall!) that might provide some perspective from both the EMS side and the patient side:
Clinical Care and Restraint of Agitated or Combative Patients by Emergency Medical Services Practitioners. (2022).
Experiences of Individuals Who Were Physically Restrained in the Emergency Department. (2020).
If podcasts are your thing, the CBC has a great medical one called "White Coat, Black Art". There was one last year that talked about a non-police crisis response team in Toronto that has been doing fantastic work in the community (corresponding article if you prefer reading). It's called the Toronto Community Crisis Service (a quick Google will also retrieve a lot of news stories on it as it's the first of its kind in Canada). While it has an emphasis on social services follow-up rather than EMS, I think they are a great example of finding non-aggressive ways to de-escalate mental health crises. That said, even they have to get police and/or EMS involved sometimes if things escalate beyond their means.
I know it's very Canada-centric (write about what you know, right?), but hopefully there's something here that might speak to you.
I'm sure it's been drilled into you already, but remember that you can't help someone unless you, your team, and your patient are safe. If it's an emergency and anyone's safety is brought into question, sometimes restraints are the best option.
And at the end of the day, I think your patient will be in better hands if they are restrained against their will because of a carefully calculated judgement call you made rather than apprehended by police later.
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