The Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 required nursing homes in the United States to modify their use of physical and chemical restraints in the provision of care to the residents. Nursing home staff members can restrain only if a medical professional determines that they must temporarily restrain residents in order to provide care for them. The author employs the Kast and Rosenzweig model of systems theory to describe the approaches that nursing homes have taken to implement a restraint-free or restraint-elimination program. He then describes the benefits that residents and staff members receive when they participate in a restraint-reduction of restraint-elimination program.
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