CALM Training Services Ltd Elmbank Mill, The Charrier Menstrie, Clackmannanshire Scotland, FK11 7BU Tel: 01259 763681 Fax: 01259 763699 Email: info@calmtraining.co.uk

CALM - Crisis, Aggression, Limitation and Management

 Philosophy

Violence at work and challenging behaviour have become high profile social policy issues. Successive national reports have confirmed that crisis management training, currently delivered by upwards of 700 UK training providers, has become the principal organisational response to workplace aggression and is now a major industry. Indeed its provision is effectively mandatory under current Guidance and Legislation.

In the current unregulated market economy of training, Violence and Aggression ( V & A ) programmes are often brief, standardised, off the shelf packages, which frequently include physical restraint techniques which are complex and potentially dangerous to both restrained and restrainee and yet are often described as “non violent, therapeutic, safe" etc. Claims unsupported by valid research. The legality of many such techniques is currently the subject of scrutiny by the courts and Government across UK jurisdictions.

We should not be surprised that V & A training has become such a quick fix panacea -i.e., the focus of over optimistic beliefs in regard to its ability to increase safety and reduce violent incidents. Research has confirmed that V & A training rarely reduces incidents, and often acts to actually reduce staff confidence. That is not to say that training can never produce positive results. It can. (see evaluations) However training is a broad term. How it is delivered and the underpinning messages and principles it promotes are crucial. It also needs to address the key issues which contribute to aggressive behaviour from service users, not just staff skills. Training providers must also advise and support user agencies over the longer term. (see testimonials )

We believe that most Violence and Aggression programmes are ineffective because they are based on a set of false assumptions about the causes and solutions to aggressive or challenging behaviour. They operate within, and thereby promote, a “False Paradigm” which remains a major impediment to the development of safe effective human services. (For a more empirical analysis see publications;  articles , etc )

Certain principles and concepts are central to the CALM philosophy:-

• Evidence:- Don’t take our word for things – training must be evidence based ( see evaluations & publications)

• Trauma:- The prevailing mechanistic model of how organisations work is unhelpful. Organisations are not like machines, where an instruction from the operator (i.e. manager) is automatically implemented. They are like people. People and organisations get stressed. They then do unhelpful things which maintain the problem. Supporting service users with challenging behaviour is a major source of such stress. Both individual and organisational behaviour therefore need to be understood and addressed to ensure safe services. Trauma theory offers a useful way of understanding the problem, and is a major component of the CALM philosophy.

• Non aversive: - Violence begets violence. Most restraints are violence. Although it may at times be necessary we do not believe that restraint is safe and/or therapeutic. Many restraint methods currently taught to staff can be used abusively and hence undermine the professional relationships by which positive behaviours are encouraged. In many cases the cure is worse than the disease. CALM techniques aim to address the first ethical principal of “First do no harm”. The evidence is that they achieve this aim.

• Public Health Approach:- Safe practice requires the organisation to implement a 'Safe Practice Jigsaw'. Studies suggest that the current focus on violence and aggression training with a skills based focus “individualises" the problem of challenging behaviour. Framing safety as a matter of individual staff skills. In so doing it promotes and maintains organisational “Blame Cultures”. This is akin to teaching someone to drive only by practicing gear changing. There is more to driving competence than gear changing. Similarly there is more to safe practice than interpersonal de escalation and restraint skills.

CALM programmes reflect the emphasis in the literature on the importance of developing supportive and positive organisational cultures and practices. Whilst it certainly does address de escalation and communication skills it employs a holistic approach which recognises that organisational factors invariably determine the level of challenging behaviour encountered and the safety of both service users and staff. It employs the Public Health Model as its template and adopts a:-

Before - During - After -  

approach, in which the emphasis is on prevention rather than crisis management.

“It is my opinion that the adoption of a Public Health Model to reduce violence and restraints in children’s residential care facilities as suggested by Paterson, Leadbetter, Miller and Crighton (2007) can best be realized by a full respect for the implementation of the rights of the child as enshrined in the Convention of the Rights of the Child”

Japp E. Doek - Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the child