Sloped top LCD TV Enclosures – 101
When sloped top LCD TV enclosures are deployed in mental health units many people question why? The long and short of it, is if the flat panel TVs are not protected they can be smashed and used as a weapon on nursing staff or even fellow patients.
What do sloped top LCD TV enclosures comprise of?
The best solutions that are on the market are the solid steel units, not the aluminum frame units that have acrylic panels, as these units are as much protection as having no protection! The acrylic can be damaged with everyday items that are found in mental health units and used as a weapon to stab fellow patients or to attach any nursing professional.
The best option is to fully enclose the TV, so only the nursing staff have access to the TV and DVD machine inside the protective sloped top LCD TV enclosures. Once bolted to the wall with anchor bolts, the flat panel TV and DVD player can be mounted to the internal mounting frames, both industry VESA compatible.
There are some units that are offered with optional cooling, however as you can imagine the screen can get hot running all day, so a thermostatic cooling system is the wiser choice – these come as standard with some manufacturers.
The viewing window is made from 3/8” thick Lexan that will withstand a chair being thrown at it! Some solutions come with a viewing window of 1/8” thick, so these should be avoided as they would not cope with any large impact such as a chair.
The next consideration should be the locks and hinges on the doors, some manufacturers offer concealed hinges with flush fitting door locks that secure into the body, so the only way to open them is to use the actual key! Other companies who offer these units use locks that are not flush, such as Southco compression latches, these can be used to loop material around them and patients can self-harm, these are also easy to open with such basic tools as a steel ruler. So the best legal solution would be to use the flush fitting locks, so no one can self-harm.
Are sloped top LCD TV enclosures sufficient?
Ideally, these solutions should have sloped sides all round, this is a certainty that no material can be looped around the protective housing, but at the very least, the housing must have a sloped top.
Why we need sloped top LCD TV enclosures?
Without the protection that sloped top LCD TV enclosures offer, mental health facilities would struggle keeping on top of patient care, as there would be no communal areas for patients to meet as the TV’s would be damaged.
The worst scenario would be if a patient had a violent outburst, they could through an object at the TV and then use any part of the broken screen as a weapon on others, this occurred in Australia in January 2013, with several members of the nursing staff being injured.
Mental health patients are extremely vulnerable and need specialist care, this can be said for their surroundings and hence the need for protecting the TV.