SR0325 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0325 LRB102 18682 MST 27135 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Illinois Department of Human Services, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Illinois Department of Mental Health, the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, and the Illinois State Board of Education promulgate rules and procedures to govern the use of restraint and seclusion with children and adolescents in social services, medical, and educational settings; and

WHEREAS, Manual restraint is defined as anytime an adult staff member, responsible for the care of a child or an adolescent, manually holds a child to prevent the child's free movement or normal access to the child's body; and

WHEREAS, Seclusion is defined as the involuntary confinement of a child in a room or an area from which the child is physically prevented from leaving; and

WHEREAS, Numerous sources document the harmful physical outcomes associated with manual restraint, including dehydration, choking, loss of strength or mobility, incontinence, and injuries, including bruises, rug burns, broken bones, and cardiopulmonary complications, or death; and

WHEREAS, Children and adolescents who experience restraint express negative social-emotional consequences, including fear, rage, anxiety, a lack of understanding about why they were restrained, profound alienation from adult staff responsible for their care, re-traumatization from their own restraint, and vicarious traumatization from witnessing the restraint of their peers; and

WHEREAS, Adult staff, responsible for the care of children and adolescents, who implement restraints may be exposed to biological material, such as saliva or blood, without appropriate protective equipment or may sustain injuries, including scrapes, bruises, sprains, scratches, bites, or broken bones; and

WHEREAS, Children and adolescents placed in seclusion have experienced a wide variety of self-inflicted injuries, such as cutting, pounding, head banging, and suicide; and

WHEREAS, A high frequency of restraint and seclusion episodes is associated with turbulent workplace environments, uncertainty, lost productivity, low morale, and potentially detrimental influences on the quality of care delivered; and

WHEREAS, The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has stated that restraint and seclusion may violate children's rights, including their right to be free from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, their right to respect for bodily integrity, and their right not to be deprived of their liberty; and

WHEREAS, Over the last two decades, national organizations, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Child Welfare League of America, the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health, and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, began supporting programs to prevent and reduce the use of restraint and seclusion; and

WHEREAS, On multiple occasions, the U.S. Department of Education warned that secluding students can be dangerous and that there is no evidence it is effective in reducing problematic behaviors among children and adolescents; and

WHEREAS, The Statewide Youth Advisory Board for the Department of Children and Family Services, which provides the Department and General Assembly with the perspective of youth-in-care, voted that reforming the use of restraints was a top policy priority; and

WHEREAS, The National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors' position statement on restraint and seclusion illustrates that practices should only be administered in the least restrictive method and should never be used for purposes of punishment, discipline, or convenience; and

WHEREAS, The U.S. Department of Education found that Illinois had the highest number of state-level seclusion totals within schools across the country; and

WHEREAS, Research has shown that children and adolescents often see seclusion as a form of punishment and can be traumatized by the practice; and

WHEREAS, The use of restraint and seclusion is based on the staff assumption that controlling children and adolescents by force will reduce dangerous behaviors and maintain community safety, although academic research shows that such coercive interventions can maintain and intensify the very behaviors staff are trying to control; and

WHEREAS, Research shows that inexperienced or inadequately trained staff are involved in more restraint and seclusion incidents than experienced staff in child welfare, mental health, juvenile justice, and educational settings; and

WHEREAS, Strategies to reduce and eliminate restraint may include leadership in organizational culture change, using data to inform practice, workforce development, inclusion of family and peers, specific reduction interventions, and rigorous debriefing; and

WHEREAS, Service providers may select from various available training curricula, supported by data and academic research, to implement organizational change and focus on the reduction of restraint and seclusion; and

WHEREAS, Research by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration deemed one training curriculum, the Six Core Strategies, an evidence-based intervention after an eight-state evaluation; and

WHEREAS, Restraint and seclusion reduction training curricula include trauma-informed principles as foundational components; and

WHEREAS, When Massachusetts developed and implemented a statewide initiative to reduce or eliminate the use of seclusion and restraint among children and adolescents for psychiatric facility workers, the number of workers' compensation claims decreased by 29 percent, and the amount of compensation paid decreased by 98 percent; and

WHEREAS, A shared vision across child and adolescent serving organizations that is grounded in academic research and data will help unite professionals under the common goal of restraint and seclusion reduction; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge policy decisions of State agencies and the U.S. Congress to align with the goal of preventing, reducing, and ultimately eliminating, the use of restraint and seclusion with children and adolescents; and be it further

RESOLVED, That it is the overarching policy of the State of Illinois that restraint and seclusion should only be used as a last resort to protect a youth from harming themselves or others and should never be used for punishment, discipline, or convenience; and be it further

RESOLVED, That until the use of restraint and seclusion is ultimately eliminated, State agencies who employ restraint and seclusion, as well as contractors to those agencies, must ensure that only staff members with certified training who are experienced in restraint and seclusion employ these methods to reduce incidents of harm; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge all administrative staff of the State of Illinois who promulgate rules and procedures that govern the use of restraint and seclusion with children and adolescents, including the Office of the Governor, the State Board of Education, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Public Health, and the Department of Juvenile Justice, to operate under the shared vision that restraint and seclusion are behavior management interventions of last resort and to work towards their reduction.