The Training Challenge
A brain-injury rehabilitation hospital, with a specific focus on short- to medium-term care and support for people with brain injuries, operated a unit specifically for cases with challenging behaviour. The hospital service manager — responsible for care quality and health and safety — engaged Dynamis to provide a comprehensive training programme that would ensure both staff and service-user safety and security during high-risk interactions.
Situations of relatively high risk were foreseeable with this client group — confusion, frustration, and aggression were highly likely and, in some cases, were the specific reasons why patients would be admitted.
Why Dynamis was asked to help:
- Staff were very diverse in terms of age, gender, experience, previous training, and understanding of restraint issues. Managers wanted to homogenise the team’s approach to physical intervention and develop their effectiveness with respect to teamwork.
- Situations of relatively high risk were foreseeable with this client group due to the nature of their conditions — confusion, frustration, and aggression were highly likely and, in some cases, were the specific reasons why the patients would be admitted.
- Specific procedures or measures would be required to deal with certain behaviours or environments, and management understood that a specialist provider with wide experience and the flexibility to respond quickly would be required.
Our Approach
The programme would have to incorporate both non-harmful and more restrictive methods of control, as the Brain Injury staff team consisted mainly of female staff whose ages, sizes, and general physical preparedness varied widely. The team would need a sufficient number of possible responses for the varied situations they might face.
The training would require staff to develop a teamwork ethic — ensuring clear communication, coordination, and tactical awareness — in order to deliver effectiveness and efficiency in high-risk scenarios on the Brain Injury Unit.
Complex cases: The training had to be sensitive to the complex medical and behavioural issues this client group could present. For example: a man who would fight off staff trying to save his life in an emergency, while aspirating due to medical complications.
Training Delivery
Gerard O’Dea, Principal Trainer for Dynamis, delivered a three-day programme of training in Physical Interventions for this Brain Injury staff team. The programme covered legal frameworks, duty of care, risk awareness, risk reduction, and comprehensive physical skills — all delivered in line with the specific guidance relevant to this hospital’s activities.