Your location: Challenging behaviour in services
Staff support - training
TPS offers a number of training courses to its staff and in 2006/07 offered 482 [8] in-house courses. Training is offered to staff according to which sector [9] they work in the organisation.
Preparing to Practice
This is a values-based course that is offered to all staff as part of their core training [10]. Introduced in 2007 the course provides a platform to ensure that TPS staff adhere to the Codes of Practice outlined by the Scottish Social Services Council. It encourages staff to look at dimensions of poverty and social exclusion [11]:
- lack of resources
- lack of work opportunities
- lack of learning opportunities
- health inequalities
- lack of decent housing
- disruption of family life
- disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
By doing so it allows staff to identify the impact this has on individuals who may access our services. Impact such as:
- stereotyping and labelling
- people who use services often seen as a 'social menace' and danger to the community
- continuation of ideas about the 'undeserving poor'
- people who use services often stigmatised and treated as an 'underclass' group rather than individuals
- having low self-esteem
- lacking self-confidence
- mental health issues.
Therapeutic Responses to Aggression and Violence (TRAVIS)
This is a two-day course that is offered to staff working in homelessness services. It was developed by Brodie Paterson [12], re-written by TPS for use in its services and accredited by the University of Stirling, which makes it a unique training course for TPS. The content covers theories of de-escalation and breakaway techniques.
TPS's Management of violence policy states that:
'....staff receive training, tailored to the particular needs of their service, in appropriate methods of managing violence [13], and that Service Managers should 'ensure staff receive appropriate training in managing violence. [14] '
De-escalation is, in plain terms, how we talk someone out of their stress. First of all it is up to the staff member to find out what is causing the individual distress and secondly they should help solve this. It is important to calm the person, treat them with dignity and respect. They will soon begin to de-escalate.
Pre-history tells that people who have been 'pulled from pillar to post' on the street and in hostels are expected to be treated badly and without respect.
After an evaluation TPS changed the third module of TRAVIS. Previously approximately 35 breakaway techniques (for use by staff to safely remove themselves from holds and grips) were taught to staff, however, this created a sense of fear in the workplace. TPS believed that this was not a value-driven way of training staff as it caused an expectation that the people they support would attack them. Breakaway techniques are only taught to staff where there is evidence [15] that staff will be at risk to violence and aggression.
Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) training
TPS has been running this since 2006. It is a system used by 5 million users [16] and is specific to homelessness and addiction services. TPS has eight staff [17] that are CPI trained trainers and believes that the course offers more for staff working in homeless services as its emphasis is on verbal de-escalation and one to one interaction.
TPS delivers CPI training to staff teams rather than bringing a group of individual staff together to form a group. By doing so this allows teams to deal with issues in as real-life a scenario as is possible and it also improves team building.
'It translates training back to the workplace [18].'
This is resource heavy approach, but as much as is possible TPS accommodates training in teams as it has proved to be most effective.