Best Practices: The Development and Implementation of “No Force First” as a Best Practice

The mental health field continues to be concerned about the use of seclusion and of mechanical and chemical restraints in treatment settings. Recovery Innovations, Inc. (RI), a nonprofit corporation that operates a range of recovery-oriented programs, successfully eliminated use of seclusion and nonchemical restraints in a crisis center. This success was the impetus behind implementation and evaluation of a "no force first" (NFF) policy, described in this column, that targeted the crisis center's use of chemical restraint. Successful implementation of the policy in the crisis center led to the concurrent adoption of the NFF policy as a best practice at all of RI's 19 behavioral health programs.