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Project Description

The Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraint State Infrastructure Grant Project (S/R-SIG) is an initiative of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) designed to promote the implementation and evaluation of best practice approaches to preventing and reducing the use of seclusion and restraint (S/R) in mental health settings. The eight state grantees, announced in the fall of 2007, include Connecticut, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia. Most of the states are implementing best practice alternatives in multiple settings and with a variety of service users. Community and forensic facilities in the project include those serving adults, children, adolescents or forensic and sexual offender populations.

Project Goals

The major goals of the S/R-SIG project are as follows:

• Enhancement of state efforts to develop, implement, and adopt best practices that reduce S/R use in a variety of settings and with a diverse group of service users.
• Improvement in safe outcomes for persons served and staff by reducing and eliminating S/R use.
• Recommendations to SAMHSA designed to inform national policy and develop evidenced-based practices.
• Application to SAMHSA’s National Registry of Effective Programs and Practices (NREPP) to certify the interventions tested in the S/R SIG as evidence-based practices.

The National Technical Assistance Coordinating Center

For the overall purpose of promoting the implementation and evaluation of best practice alternatives to the use of S/R, SAMHSA contracted with the NASMHPD National Technical Assistance Center to establish a Technical Assistance Coordinating Center for the S/R SIG. The S/R SIG Technical Assistance Coordinating Center: serves as a resource center for the SIG sites and other interested states/stakeholders; disseminates best and promising practices and lessons learned to a national audience; and provides on-site and off-site technical assistance to S/R-SIG grantees and others.

CSR, Incorporated – Independent Evaluator

SAMHSA contracted with CSR, Incorporated to perform an independent, full-scale evaluation of the S/R SIG. The main purpose of this evaluation is to assess the degree to which SIG grants impact a) the implementation of best practice alternatives and b) S/R and injury rates in mental health facilities. CSR directs all research related activities for the evaluation including data collection and analysis.