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.

For years we have had this concept of Debriefing used in our industry with little consideration. When we are working with relationships we are automatically working with emotion. Assumption is the basis of all human interaction.

As the NLP mantra went

"the meaning of my communication is the response I get!"

How many times have things in our own lives been misinterpreted because our perception of a word or sentence is completely different to the meaning the person intended? I remember this happened for me even with my own mother! When an individual needs support we fundamentally make mistakes if we default to our standard settings of negativity [blog to come].

Statements that people make:

- That happened to me once / last week

- You do not want to be doing that when he is in the room now do you

- It is what you are paid for

- It is part of your job

- Don't be such a wuss

- You call that challenging, last week I had .......

Why do people make these kinds of Statements

People are inherently negative, this is an evolutionary fact that I go into in much more detail on our Social Emotional Skills 4 Life courses.

- Some will feel the need to share their story because they have not dealt with the emotion about what happened to them enough to be able to assist you.

- Some will take some pleasure in invalidating your emotional experience by implying that what you experienced was "nothing" this makes them feel better about how impressive they are that they have dealt with worse.

But this is not the place to deal with such psychology.

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And so the individual who is doing the listening needs to be aware of their role as a person doing the offloading and as this is not a natural thing for them to do - training is needed. This training should include affect labeling.

In terms of the Restraint Reduction Network Training Standards (2019 v1.1) there is clear separation with these elements

2.13.1 Training content must include reference to the need for, and the understanding of, the purpose of both components of post-incident review for individuals and staff.  

1. Post-incident support – attention to physical and emotional wellbeing of the individuals involved

This includes what we @D8 call Offloading

2. Post-incident reflection and learning review

This would be the more understanding of a comprehensive debriefing

2.13.2 Training content must cover the need for postincident support.

This is the most important part of the process and the bit I find most misunderstood. On every training course there are a large percentage of participants who when asked at the start of the section have little understanding of the importance of the emotional support side - this is the side we call Offloading.

2.13.4 Training content must also cover the second component of a post-incident review: a reflective and learning review. The training content must cover the essential elements of the learning and reflective review which should be triggered by the use of any planned or unplanned restrictive intervention or any other event specified in organisational policy.