Coercion Free Nebraska (CFN)

Coercion Free Nebraska (CFN) is a coalition committed to improving behavioral health care for youth across Nebraska. With a vision for all providers to adopt a trauma-informed system of care, Nebraska’s Coercion Free initiative coincides with a national model. Each initiative aims to prevent and reduce the practice of using seclusion, restraint and other restrictive interventions in residential youth facilities across Nebraska and the United States.

Transforming the current culture in behavioral health care is a critical step in establishing coercion-free treatment environments. The existence of seclusion and restraint sends a message to treatment staff and the public that people with mental illnesses are dangerous. CFN delivers a new message:

• Restraint and seclusion pose significant risks to individuals undergoing treatment and those who are entrusted with their care.
• Subjecting individuals with a history of trauma to any form of restraint can re-traumatize them and produce a significant decline in recovery.
• Those subject to restraint and seclusion frequently experience a loss of dignity; further compromising recovery and personal empowerment.

Coercion Free Nebraska works to shift the focus from deficit-based models to a strength-based approach, focusing on enhancing self-esteem and promoting the client-centered goals of recovery and rehabilitation.

It is the goal of CFN to foster a system of care for individuals and families that embraces and creates treatment environments that minimize coercion. Through encouraging the growth and development of coercion- and trauma-free treatment environments CFN focuses on reducing the use of restraint and seclusion in Nebraska health system and facilities.

CFN actively promotes a mental health system that treats people with dignity and respect, protects individuals’ rights, provides the best care possible, and assists in their recovery. The Nebraska initiative centers primarily on the following outcomes:

• Increase in the knowledge, skills, and abilities of consumers, providers, facilities, advocates, and others to prevent, reduce, and monitor the use of seclusion and restraint.
• Increase the number of facilities that implement best practice prevention and reduction guidelines.
• Reduce the number of seclusion and restraint-related deaths and injuries and the frequency of use of such interventions.
• Future elimination of restraint and seclusion practices replaced with a strength-base model.

To access additional information on Coercion Free Nebraska please email info@cfnebraska.org or visit www.cfnebraska.org.