Handle With Care trains residential treatment center (RTC) and residential treatment facility (RTF) staff throughout the country, Puerto Rico, Canada and Europe.
HWC is a well established training program for RTCs, RTFs and group homes. HWC’s verbal intervention philosophy goes right to the heart of what good child care is all about. Organizations and schools contracting with HWC experience a decrease in physical restraint episodes, fighting incidents, physical assaults, runaways, and verbal threats.
Staff also report that they are more confident in their ability to manage a potentially dangerous, violent, aggressive, self-injurious or suicidal situation.
One NY RTF we train had this to say about the effectiveness of HWC’s program at their organization:
“We have never used a ‘seclusion’ or ‘time-out room, or a camisole or other mechanical restraint devices to maintain order. Other agencies have been less fortunate. This is particularly ironic because the agencies involved, with offer a ‘spectrum’ of care, have repeatedly transferred their difficult children to us. How then, do we maintain safety? Our in-house trainers, are certified (an annually re-certified) in the Handle With Care Behavior Management System [which includes both verbal and physical] intervention techniques. Should a physical restraint occur, staff have considerable training and experience in working together to gain control of a resident.
Such techniques as passing off responsibility to that an individual staff member who may be the direct object of an attack is quickly replaced by a more neutral (or even a particularly well-liked) staff member, moving uninvolved residents away from the area of the disorder, and trying to encourage verbal rather than physical expression of feelings, are all emphasized repeatedly in staff training.”