Remarks by
A. Kathryn Power, M.Ed.
Director
Center for Mental Health Services
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
Reducing the Use of Seclusion and Restraints in Psychiatric Facilities Web Cast
Rockville, MD
August 25, 2005
Attached is the text prepared for delivery; however, some material may have been added or omitted at the time of delivery.
Slide 1/Cover
Hello. I am Kathryn Power, Director of SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services. I am eager to bring you this message today because we have reached a critical point in our work to reduce and ultimately eliminate the use of seclusion and restraint in treatment facilities across this country.
Today, we find ourselves at a place where need meets opportunity. The need is obvious. The issue of seclusion and restraint is literally one of life and death for mental health consumers. An estimated 150 individuals per year—a disproportionate number of them children—die tragic deaths as a result of these practices. Even when these interventions are not fatal, they are humiliating, punishing, and depressing…and may exacerbate the conditions that brought these individuals into the treatment system in the first place. Mental health consumers have told us: these practices make them feel completely powerless.
The challenges are considerable. But in the midst of these challenges, tremendous opportunities exist. There are effective alternatives to the use of seclusion and restraint . This broadcast will showcase a number of these alternatives …examples of what is possible when we make creating healing and healthy treatment settings our priority.
Supporting States’ efforts to create seclusion- and restraint-free treatment environments is a high priority for SAMHSA… and has been since SAMHSA Administrator, Charles Curie, made this issue one of SAMHSA’s agency-wide priorities four years ago. Today, ending the use of seclusion and restraint and other forms of unnecessarily coercive treatment is a mental health system transformation imperative.
The President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health called for a fundamental transformation of our national mental health services delivery system. The goal: hope for a full life outside the hospital…where services and supports are consumer-, child- and family-centered…and the focus of care is designed to increase an individual’s ability to self manage his or her illness, and build resilience. A keystone of the transformation process will be the protection and respect of the rights of consumers and their families. The use of controlling or coercive interventions is counterintuitive to transformation!
A few weeks ago, SAMHSA and its Federal partners, including CMS, released The Federal Action Agenda, the roadmap that will guide the Nation’s first steps toward transformation. Importantly, the Action Agenda includes support of State training efforts to implement alternatives to seclusion and restraint as one of the “transforming activities” that can yield immediate results in our efforts to advance this wholesale change.
SAMHSA is pleased that CMS is joining us in taking steps to redirect the focus from safer use of these practices to prevention and alternatives. Working together, we are moving steadily toward a vision of a mental health system that fosters a culture of caring…a vision that focuses on preventing the kinds of crises that have often led to the use of seclusion and restraint in the first place…a vision that recognizes seclusion and restraint not as treatment options, but rather as treatment failures, and acknowledges that we can—and must—do better.
SAMHSA has developed a national action plan to reduce and ultimately eliminate seclusion and restraint. The plan identifies five key areas of focus—data collection, rights protection, evidence-based practices and guidelines, leadership and partnership development, and training and technical assistance. SAMHSA is supporting a number of programs and activities in each of these areas.
We know what needs to be done. The opportunity is upon us. But, we must change minds…and hearts…before we can change systems. You and others whose decisions and actions “touch” consumers can make this change happen. You will be the deliverers of recovery and hope in the transformed system. But to be an effective change agent, you must first be willing to embrace this profound change.
The men, women, and children in treatment facilities across this country are depending on you to move the critical issues we are talking about today to action. I congratulate you for choosing to be an agent of transformation…and for putting your power to work to make this change happen. Thank you.
###
|
