§ 42-72.9-3. Definitions. For the purposes of this chapter:

(1) "Service provider" means any person employed or contracted by a covered facility to provide direct care, residential treatment, education, or direct supervision of children.

(2) "Covered facility" means any agency, organization, or public or private entity that provides any of the following for children, regardless of the state agency under whose authority its license is established: residential treatment, including in-house educational programming; in-patient or residential psychiatric treatment for mental illness; and group or shelter home care pursuant to a licensed granted by the department of children, youth, and families. The term "covered facility" does not include the public school system or psychiatric hospitals, or the Rhode Island training school for youth. The department of children, youth, and families will promulgate policies and regulations in accordance with § 42-72.9-9 relative to the use of seclusion and restraint at the Rhode Island training school for youth on or before January 1, 2001.

(3) "Therapeutic physical restraint" means the acceptable use of a staff member's body to immobilize or reduce the free movement of a child/youth's arms, legs, torso, or head, in order to ensure the physical safety of a child/youth or other individual in the facility. The term does not include: (i) briefly holding a person in order to calm or comfort the person; (ii) restraint involving the minimum contact necessary to safely escort the person from one area to another.

(4) "Mechanical restraint" means any approved mechanical restriction that immobilizes or reduces the free movement of a child/youth's arms, legs, torso, or head in order to hold a child/youth safely including: (i) medical devices, including, but not limited to, supports prescribed by a health care provider to achieve proper body position or balance; (ii) helmets or other protective gear used to protect a person from injuries due to a fall; or (iii) helmets, mitts and similar devices used to prevent self-injury when the device is part of a documented treatment plan and is the least restrictive means available to prevent the self-injury.

(5) "Life threatening physical restraint" means any physical restraint or hold on a child that restricts the flow of air into a person's lungs, whether by chest compression or any other means.

(6) "Chemical restraint" means a medication used to control behavior or restrict the patient's freedom of movement and is not a standard treatment for the child's medical or psychiatric condition.

(7) "Seclusion" means the involuntary confinement of a child/youth in a room in a covered facility, whether alone or with staff supervision, in a manner that prevents the child/youth from leaving. This definition does not pertain to the use of "time out" as an acceptable form of short-term behavioral management nor does it pertain to covered facilities where the terms of seclusion are defined pursuant to particular judicial decrees.

(8) "Time out" means the brief separation of a child/youth from the group not to exceed twenty (20) minutes, designed to de-escalate the child/youth. During the "Time out," a child/youth's freedom of movement is not restricted and the child/youth need not be directly supervised, but must be visually monitored.

History of Section. (P.L. 2000, ch. 56, § 1; P.L. 2000, ch. 73, § 1.)