Kainuu care staff used safety spray on people with intellectual disabilities

Staff at a residential unit for adults with intellectual disabilities in Kajaani have used a licence-free safety spray on residents, Yle reported. Experts described the practice as highly unusual and criticised it, while the Kainuu wellbeing services county said it was intended to protect employees.

The spray’s active ingredient is menthol, and it is directed at the area around the eyes. It causes an involuntary spasm of the eyelids.

The use of the spray came to light when Yle examined documents from the Rajamiehentie residential unit, which provides round-the-clock housing services for adults with intellectual disabilities. The unit is supervised by the Finnish Licensing and Control Agency, known as LVV.

Yle examined the unit’s background because crimes are suspected to have taken place there. Four employees are suspected of offences against three people with intellectual disabilities, including coercion, defamation and assault. The suspicions emerged this spring after the wellbeing services county announced the case, which has now advanced to consideration of charges.

Yle has not established what is specifically alleged to have happened at the unit. The Kainuu wellbeing services county has declined to comment, and the events are not detailed in a recent LVV supervisory decision. It is therefore not known whether the issues discussed in this article are connected to the suspected crimes.

A professor at the University of Helsinki said the use of the spray appeared to constitute a human rights violation.

Wellbeing services county cites staff safety

Documents indicate that the safety spray was introduced at the Rajamiehentie unit in 2020. They do not provide a complete account of how many times staff used it.

Documents from spring 2021 mention three uses up to that point, while documents from autumn 2024 refer to several more.

LVV senior social welfare inspector Jaana Tihinen, who was involved in supervising the unit, said she had been left with the impression that the spray was no longer being used.

Jarkko Hanhela, a service unit manager at the Kainuu wellbeing services county, told Yle that the sprays had been in use at Rajamiehentie until then. According to Hanhela, residents with intellectual disabilities were sprayed only on isolated occasions, but he did not provide more detailed statistics.

Hanhela said the spray was used to protect care staff. The residents of the unit can behave in challenging ways, and staff tried to use the spray to control situations and prevent more serious injuries.

According to Hanhela, safety spray was also used in some other disability residential units operated by the Kainuu wellbeing services county. He said there was an administrative instruction governing its use.

An image in the county’s administrative instruction presents two types of safety spray. The instruction recommends that the county’s work units use the smaller spray because it is a suitable size and does not stain people.

Tihinen said LVV had begun a broader investigation into the use of safety spray in Kainuu’s social welfare residential services. The matter remains under consideration.

“The use of safety spray can be considered an unlawful interference with a person’s physical integrity,” Tihinen said.

Experts said it was highly unusual for safety spray to be used in services for people with intellectual disabilities. The debate over the use of force against people with intellectual disabilities has intensified in recent days after a resident of Rinnekoti, a residential care facility in Espoo, died when police used a conducted electrical weapon on him because of aggressive behaviour.

Hanhela said the use of safety spray in residential services for people with disabilities had recently been discontinued.