Protection from coughing and spitting assaults
Coughing and Spitting Assaults: How to Protect Yourself From Intentional Coughing and Spitting This post is about conflict management | personal safety | dynamis training. As a company deeply involved in personal safety training, we watch carefully when new trends emerge in personal safety risk. Since early March 2020 it has become increasingly common to […]
Screech Alarms and Lone Worker Protection
What Can a Screech Alarm Actually Do? This post is about conflict management | personal safety | dynamis training. Using a personal safety “screech”-type alarm might be useful as part of an overall escape strategy in Lone Worker Protection. But it shouldn’t be a psychological crutch. What is the real utility of the siren on […]
Ambulance Staff Personal Safety: a cautionary tale
This post is about conflict management | personal safety | dynamis training. Several years ago I was fortunate to be asked to present at a national conference for trainers in the prevention and management of violence and aggression. While I was there, I had the great privilege to hear this talk by “the most violently […]
Lone Social Worker Abducted and Abused
This post is about conflict management | personal safety | dynamis training. Three teenagers who abducted and attacked a trainee social worker on a home visit have been jailed for a total of five years. The case raises urgent questions about whether lone worker safety training is keeping pace with the risks faced by frontline […]
Personal Safety Tips for Lone Workers (or anyone)
Our clients sometimes ask our Dynamis Team to deliver training on general personal safety for Lone Workers or in our specialised Violence Prevention clinics for Survivors of Abuse. Here are 12 of our key personal safety tips, drawn from our Self-Protection Trainer Certification manual. 12 Essential Personal Safety Tips 1. Body Language Matters Certain behaviours […]
Reacting more quickly: Stimulus Identification in Breakaway Training
Stimulus Identification is a huge part of being able to respond to it One of the most important factors which influences Reaction Time (RT) and decision-making is the number of possible stimuli the performer must choose from at any given time – each of which may need a distinct response action to be programmed. […]
Understanding Reaction Time in Restraint Training and Personal Safety
In sports science, there is a vast and growing body of knowledge on the subject of Reaction Time, as it is one of the key components of the performance of skill. Reaction Time is defined as the interval of time that elapses from the sudden presentation of a stimulus to the beginning of a person’s […]
Retail Security Risks and Training in Personal Safety
I read with interest this appalling — but familiar — story about a female security guard being stabbed with a syringe in a Sainsbury’s in Kent. The security guard confronted a drug-taking subject as he attempted to steal a bottle of whiskey from the supermarket shelves and make off with it outside the store. The […]
Elderly Care and how to manage aggression and violent behaviour with restraint training
Managing Aggression in Elderly Care We have come across a solicitor’s case which neatly summarises the points we make to care home managers across the country. We gratefully reproduce it here for posterity — it is a sobering lesson in risk assessment, duty of care, and the consequences of waiting for something serious to happen […]
Restraint Training: Over 50% of NHS Assaults are Impacts
Assault prevention is a key issue in healthcare and social care environments. In multiple research studies, it has been found that over 50% of assaults on healthcare workers are kinetic: punches, slaps and kicks. Knowing this is important — it allows you to spend the right amount of training time on the types of incident […]