TLC has been using Pro-ACT® as a training curriculum within its noted and successful effort to establish and maintain a zero-restraint environment. The Pro-ACT® program fits that objective because of its strong emphasis on the responsibility of the professional–self-awareness, assessment of the situation, knowledge of the child, and selection of proper intervention strategies. It is all too easy to “blame” the child, to view restraint as inevitable because of his/her behaviors, and Pro-ACT® does not allow that. I also like its honesty about the emotional and physical dangers of restraint and its emphasis on restraint as a failure of the treatment plan.
For organizations contemplating a move towards zero-restraint, it is essential to frame restraint as a treatment failure, not to allow it to be seen as an unfortunate necessity. Change efforts should then focus on the program – its treatment model, services, and training curriculum. It is a major undertaking that must involve all areas of service delivery and include input from all members of the community, including children, youth and families.
Ms. Judy Vreeland
Program Director, The Learning Center for the Deaf
Framingham, MA
Vermont State Hospital implemented Pro-ACT® training after receiving a SAMSHA grant directed at reducing seclusion and restraint. In 2010, following a 2008 launch of grant programming, focus groups were conducted in an effort to assess progress toward meeting the objective of the grant. The following excerpts were taken directly from that report.
- VSH staff nearly all identified the Pro-ACT training and processes to be the most effective strategy toward reducing seclusion and restraint. Pro-ACT “teaches principles and not techniques, encourages critical thinking to de-escalate early and also communicate before things reach a crisis.”
- “Since Pro-ACT there seems to be a lot more awareness, conversation, and discussion about what we are going to do other than seclusion and restraint, more use of those tools.”
- At VSH, staff credit Pro-ACT training as the primary contributor to changes.
Provided by David P. Mitchell, RN, BSN
Director of Education and Training
Vermont State Hospital
Waterbury, VT
“Our Level 12 facility has to do very few restraints thanks to the preventative emphasis of Pro-ACT training.”
Arthea J. Larson MA, LMFT
Director of Training and Staff Development
Five Acres
Altadena, CA