(a) Service recipients have the right to be free from isolation and restraints, in any form, imposed as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff. Restraints include physical and mechanical restraints and drugs used to control behavior or to restrict freedom of movement if the drug or the dosage of the drug is not a standard treatment for the service recipient‘s medical or psychiatric condition. Isolation is placement of a person alone in a room from which egress is prevented. Isolation and restraint may be used only while the condition justifying its use exists.
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 33-3-120

  • Department: means the department of mental health and substance abuse services. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
  • Mental illness: means a psychiatric disorder, alcohol dependence, or drug dependence, but does not include intellectual disability or other developmental disabilities as defined in title 52. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Serious emotional disturbance: means a condition in a child who currently or at any time during the past year has had a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder of sufficient duration to meet psychiatric diagnostic criteria that results in functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits the child's role or functioning in family, school, or community activities and includes any mental disorder, regardless of whether it is of biological etiology. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
  • Service recipient: means a person who is receiving service, has applied for service, or for whom someone has applied for or proposed service because the person has mental illness or serious emotional disturbance. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(b) A person with mental illness or serious emotional disturbance may be isolated or restrained only in emergency situations if necessary to assure the physical safety of the person or another person nearby or to prevent significant destruction of property. If a person imposes restraints or isolation, the person shall immediately contact a professional who is permitted under department rules to authorize the isolation or restraint. If the treating physician is not the person who orders isolation or restraint, the treating physician shall be consulted as soon as possible. A professional authorized by department rules shall see and evaluate the person’s condition within one (1) hour of the intervention.
(c) [Deleted by 2024 amendment]
(d) Staff shall remain in the physical presence of a person in restraint. Staff shall continuously observe a person in isolation or restraint for the health and well being of the person.
(e) The professional shall record the use of restraint or isolation, the reasons for its use, and the duration of its use in the person’s record.
(f) All staff who may have direct contact with a person being restrained or isolated shall receive ongoing education and training in alternative methods for handling behavior and the safe use of isolation and restraint.
(g) The department shall adopt rules as to circumstances under which use of restraint and isolation are permitted. The department shall distribute the rules to all who provide services covered by this title.
(h) The department shall report annually to the statewide planning and policy council on the use of restraint and isolation in the state and its rules on the subject.
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