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Question: Does training staff in both de-escalation and physical intervention, as opposed to de-escalation alone, lead to an increase restraints (after staff are trained) within an organization? Answer: The idea that training staff in physical intervention will lead them to use it excessively stems from a misunderstanding of human nature and the role of empowerment. This is really a discussion about whether the personal empowerment of staff is good or bad.  In the same way that empowering students with tools for self-regulation, resilience, and positive coping skills enables them to handle difficult situations without resorting to aggression or defiance, training staff in physical intervention is not about promoting its use but about giving them confidence and preparedness to maintain safety when a truly unsafe situation arises. Safety Comes First It is only by creating a physically and emotionally safe environment that organizations and schools can offer their clients and students a foundation from which they can learn, heal or grow. Without the tools to ensure safety, teachers and staff are left vulnerable to situations that may compromise the well-being of both themselves and their students or clients. By limiting a person’s ability to respond effectively in situations where safety is at risk, the very foundation of the organization’s or school’s mission is undermined. From healthcare clients who may be ill, in pain or scared to students who are neurodiverse, from different cultural or socioeconomic backgrounds, or who have experienced trauma, feeling safe and trusting their environment can be a significant challenge. If staff are not provided with the tools they need to ensure safety, clients and students may lose trust in them, feeling that the staff cannot protect them from the physical or emotional harm that might arise from a situation. Furthermore, when staff feel disempowered and fearful, it affects their ability to remain calm and regulated. A fearful or dysregulated staff member will struggle or be unable to effectively support or set appropriate limits for a dysregulated student or client. From our experience, based on training many thousands of organizations and schools over four decades, trained or not, staff do not want to engage in physical interventions at all.  There is almost always a reluctance to become physically engaged, even when safety necessitates it. What is typically experienced post physical intervention training is an improvement in Staff’s ability de-escalate a situation using “Support” and “Limit Setting” interventions.  Clients and students test the emotional solidity of the people (i.e. staff) around them by attempting to activate a response. When staff are equipped with the tools to ensure their own safety and the safety of others, they are not driven by fear. As a result, they are now able to remain calm, coherent, and emotionally regulated.  In fact, the number of restraints after training should decrease, not increase.  Handle With Care.  Everyone Deserves To Be Safe.

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I've been doing this for a long time. Forty years is long enough to become jaded and cynical if you allow the negative circumstances of your professional life to overtake you. I've been way too blessed and buoyant to just sink like that. I, for one, would rather swim. Every now and then you meet someone who shows you how. Bravery takes many forms. There are the obvious physical acts of bravery we've witnessed on the battlefield and by first responders chasing felons and fires for a living. There are also acts of bravery that occur every single day in agencies and schools just like yours that go largely unnoticed. Today, I found a hero while I was training folks in Albany. I doubt I will ever forget her. She is young, pretty and all of 100 lbs. although, if you weighed her heart it would be every bit of 95 pounds and another 5 pounds of smile. Like many of you, she is a teacher who works with a population of severely disturbed and extremely violent little ones.  The school's and her  first time being trained in HWC. The first thing I noticed behind her smile were her hands, which were utterly ravaged by bites, scratches and deep gouges. Some of her wounds were as fresh as yesterday and some were scars that, that like her smile, will likely never go away or fade from sight. I was told that she actually takes over whenever her co workers are performing a hold with one of their violent little children so that her co worker won't be subjected to the same painful injuries as she. I have never met anyone so visibly scared and yet so happy with her job and her young life. I am crying as I write this. She has no idea how deeply she affected me. I am using this space in our newsletter to give something back to her and others in the HWC family above and beyond a physical way of holding the children she loves that will keep her hands out of harm's way. HWC wants to give her and others recognition for their heroism and selflessness by dedicating a new "Inspirational" section on our HWC blog. We are asking you to nominate someone who you work with who you feel has shown an act (or acts) of true dedication, selflessness, love, inspiration or bravery in the field. Give us the person's name and a description of why you are making the nomination. A picture would be great, as long as your nominee gives us permission to publish it with his or her story. BC "Do Right And Fear No One"