PBS & de-escalation
Developing positive relationships supporting those in distress
Challenging Behaviour is a term the healthcare sector has misused for years. When the term was originally introduced, it was an attempt to move away from the then widely used term "behaviourally disturbed". The healthcare sector recognised that the term had become associated with some very negative connotations and therefore should not, in good conscience, be given to an individual.
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A service director the other day commented how it was only on Physical Intervention training that the staff start questioning to the Nth degree about scenarios and possible outcomes of events. She stated that it would not happen on a first aid course. Well I know a first aid trainer who would disagree, however I have been on a lot of training as a participant in the last year (see biog) and can agree her point is valid.
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Recently I was lucky enough to attend the latest BILD seminar entitled - Attachment Trauma & Relationships D.ESCAL8 has, from its inception, focused on attachment, trauma and resilience in relationships and in our main course titled – “Developing Positive Relationships with Individuals in Distress”. I was therefore interested in this seminar in particular and was able to swing my timetable to go in the last few days prior to the event.
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Over the last few years we have been having many conversations with family members who say they never receive support with their child or relative's behaviour.For a long time we debated how to achieve supporting family around their person. I grew up with disabilities as part of my family life and therefore am quite close to the fundamental idea that we are in a great positions to assist others.
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From Inception D8 was formed as a method of getting high quality training to those who care for individuals in distress. Part of that concept involves smaller companies and individuals who find accessing training prohibitive for various reasons. Apart from the obvious cost implications with running a full training course there are also the implications regarding closing a business to release staff for the course to occur.
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When under pressure we respond in a small number of differing ways. These tend to be in 2 main camps. Those who feel the need to control and those who have a more relaxed attitude. The question is which has a better effect on the person in distress? Picture this, you are under pressure and in distress and you shout at your partner "just get me my dinner!" and your partner replies "No, you will not talk to me in that manner! ENOUGH now."
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D.ESCAL8™ know it can sometimes be difficult finding somewhere to take the individuals we support on holiday. Concerns around behaviour - particularly noise and breakages - make supporters feel limited in the choice of accommodation. D.ESCAL8™ recommend Fronrhydwen, a family run smallholding in Pembrokeshire, where Des Cooke lets out a cottage for holidays. The four bedded accommodation is set in a rural 4 acres, affording space and quiet, whilst being situated a short drive from all the area has to offer. Des and his family have welcomed individuals and their carers on many occasions. They have a relaxed and flexible approach e.g. acceptance that noise is part of life.
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Over the last few years we have had a terrific response in terms of de-escalation with our course incorporating Affect Labelling. Emotions arise to make us pay attention to our environment. The more emotional our experience, the less we can think clearly, resist impulses, and engage in constructive problem-solving. By creating even the simplest label, we learn to express what we are experiencing. At a rudimentary level, we think about what is causing us to feel emotion and take action to experience either more or less of the emotion, depending on the situation.
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The mind shift almost always travels from introductions where people say / imply things that contradict the basic philosophy of the course to an ending where people state publicly (or privately to me) how they always thought like this. Usually adding something like - “it is great that a training like this exists so that all those other people I work with whose attitude needs adjusting can access it”.
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This is a series of images sent to me by the area boss. It's not merely about the evaluations people provide at the end. It’s about the deeper consolidation achieved through meaningful conversations within the team. These conversations foster understanding, collaboration, and alignment, which are far more impactful than numerical scores or rankings. The true value lies in engaging dialogue that strengthens bonds and resolves challenges. Success stems from shared insights and collective growth within the team. Conversations truly matter in building trust and unity.
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Guest Post - Misbehaviour: Are You Missing the Point? - In a word, maybe. But not because you don’t have what it takes or because you don’t care about the work you do, or the people you serve. Of all the things you do every day at work; the problems you solve, the challenges you overcome, the relationships you build, when a behaviour that challenges shows up, it usually commands your immediate attention (and perhaps intervention). It often comes with a sense of urgency to eliminate it – a client may be doing something that is causing harm or putting others at risk – and your job is to fix it, right?
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What would you do? This seems to be an innocent question with a straight forward answer. However, when asked by someone who works in healthcare industry, assumptions take over and most people are convinced they know exactly what that entails – lets look at the options
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PBS, Positive Behaviour Support Training focuses us to follow a path, yet there has not been a succinct summation I cared to share until now. The British Institute of Learning Disabilities’s new Centre for the Advancement of Positive Behaviour Support has commissioned a video animation to help explain PBS. I have put it here and also an easily memorable short link for you to this video.
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A brief conversation around the administration system that we use on a daily basis
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The term debriefing is an industry-used term. In our industry while useful it is often misunderstood when talking about application at ground floor or grassroots level. When discussing the term de-briefing we @de-escalate.com have separated the term debriefing into different areas. I will discuss one of these here.
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The D8 admin system has developed steadily over the last few years and is now at the point where we can release individual participant online access to their own digital certificates.
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If there is any indication or suspicion that anyone has suffered an injury or psychological trauma following the incident / use of physical intervention they must receive treatment and support as soon as is reasonably possible. Debriefing is misused as a term, and while analysis is important in a Positive Behaviour Support framework, your D.ESCAL8™ facilitator discussed these two areas and the differences between debriefing and offloading.
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In a previous life I worked as a trainer for another organisation. This organisation had several trainers which meant when delivering update days I would, more often than not, be delivering an update day to a group who I had not delivered the original course to.When doing the introductions on an update day I used to consistently hear a couple of common comments.
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As you know from our previous post about offloading we @D8 have always fundamentally separated the concept of Debriefing into 2 distinct and different areas. As we are in 2020 we should add that the Restraint Reduction Network Standards (2019 version 1.1) have also got these laid out into the same 2 areas.
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As you know from our previous post about offloading we @D8 have always fundamentally separated the concept of Debriefing into 2 distinct and different areas. As we are in 2020 we should add that the Restraint Reduction Network Standards (2019 version 1.1) have also got these laid out into the same 2 areas.
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I have wanted to do a post about Hanlon's Razor for a while and the mask issue has led to me combining that here. Our non verbal communication being misinterpreted or misunderstood should not be considered intentional.
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As the world is adapting to the new normal we have developed a modular online highly interactive workshop to assist us all in this new normal. Given that we can suddenly have certain groups of staff isolating for a period of time we now have the ability to put them on engaging training. So how did this online workshop come into being?
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So there was an interesting year. So many things happened and so many issues were dealt with in the spirit of humanity. Now we finish the year wondering about the new strain of the virus.
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