Lincolnshire County Council

Personal Safety - Home Care Teams facing Challenging Behaviour

Over the past two years we have been heavily involved in designing training interventions to increase the confidence of home care staff whilst going about there work across the county. Dementia is an ever increasing problem at the moment, sadly making certain service-users quite unpredictable in terms of behaviour. Previous training had focused on violence and aggression alone, which really didn't address the problem, it merely provided a management system for when it occurred.

How we helped

We felt that it was necessary to further understand the nature of dementia and how we can approach and behave differently to improve the outcome for both parties. The Home Care teams had received Dementia Awareness Training, but there seemed to be no link with the behaviour that challenged the home carers personally - it wasn't just anger, aggression, and violence! Service-users also walk with purpose (formerly known as wandering), are prone to repetition, regress into earlier parts of their lives, and change their behaviour accordingly.

We designed and delivered a one-day workshop combining issues of Home Visiting, Personal Safety and Dementia Awareness, with a comprehensive video programme illustrating typical scenarios staff could recognise and solutions on how to cope with such events

The evaluations from these events have been extraordinary!

KCA (UK)

Violence at work case study KCA (UK), Faversham, Kent

Kent County Addiction, KCA (UK) is a Registered Charity that was established in 1975 and has grown steadily over the years to become one of the largest providers of community drug and alcohol services in the South East. It employs over 200 people across Kent, Surrey and the London Boroughs of Greenwich, Bexley, Ealing and Bromley. Sheridan & Associates has provided training services designed to improve the self-confidence and personal safety of frontline staff that face aggression from their client base, some of whom are battling to overcome their drug and alcohol addictions.

Background

Initially, we received an enquiry via our website from Julie French (Training Manager) who was becoming concerned about the growing number of incidents counsellors and receptionists were facing and the lowering of morale amongst colleagues as a consequence. Through the risk assessment process and training needs analysis, KCA then investigated the issue and identified that the problem was far greater than first realised, as some individuals had not reported all of the incidents they had endured. Only when the full extent of the problem was brought into the open, could the organisation then address the difficulties that their people faced. Following several meetings and visits to assess current arrangements and the ergonomics of the various offices around Kent, it became clear that there was a considerable training need for the entire front line staff. The risk assessment process highlighted the areas of work where aggression or even violence was more likely to occur and the reasons why, hence the project focused on these areas in an attempt to lower or remove the unnecessary risks where possible. The project was a holistic approach to the overall way the services were delivered to the client and not merely a ‘tick box’ exercise.

How we helped

Sheridan Associates has provided solutions for personal safety and coping with workplace violence and aggression for many types of organisation across the public, private and voluntary sectors. Many solutions are common to all situations, but the key to our success over the years has been our ability to identify the differences and idiosyncrasies between our clients’ activities and specific training needs, and then addressing them and providing specific solutions.

The evaluations of these training events have been outstanding!

After a recommendation by Newark & Sherwood District Council, we were contacted by Broxtowe BC after they identified an issue with angry and aggressive customers misbehaving in the public areas, especially in reception, in interview rooms, and in the seating area both inside and outside the main entrance, following a series of minor incidents.

A risk assessment was completed by the H&S Manager, and it was decided that there was a sufficient risk to staff and other members of the public to warrant a new procedure to remove aggressive or even violent members of the public from the building.

How we helped

A training programme was designed and developed to support and train a Response Team for those occasions when the panic alarm was pressed.

A simple two-day programme was put together to cover Personal Safety issues, Lone Working issues, De-Escalation Techniques, and Breakaway Techniques for those occasions when all other techniques just don't work, when drugs and alcohol or other health issues make things difficult.

The solution was a freshly designed procedure in which the response team, up to 6 in number would respond to any panic alarm and approach from pre-designed position and whilst keeping a safe distance, start communicating with the irate customer that the Police had been contacted, but also giving the person the chance to leave the building at this point.

One very important aspect of this training was to keep everyone safe, customers, staff, and the Response Team, and this we believe was achieved by working in partnership with Broxtowe's H&S Team.