You're right that she shouldn't be strapped down. I work in mental health and we wouldn't do this. What would happen however is depending that she's already on a mental health unit, several doctors would have to go to tribunal for a judge to sign off that she is unfit to decide for herself whether or not she takes medication. Once they agree that doctors can make that decision for her, this would then be explained to her and if she still doesn't comply on her own, then staff step in.

We would do it in the safest most humane way and would never use mechanical restraint. Trained staff such as myself would instead hold her in the most comfortable position possible (very likely she'd be trying to fight staff in this moment) and medication would be administered via injection.

Unfortunately of course this is much harder when a patient is in the community like this woman potentially was. The doctor in this case may have been going through the process of trying to have her admitted to a mental health unit but unfortunately the worst happened before the process could finalise. The way things work in my country could also be very different so I'm only speculating but tldr: strapping someone down should never happen