Training for NHS Healthcare Security Officers in Non-escalation, De-escalation and Crisis Management

Dynamis Training offers a physical intervention programme for Healthcare Security Officers (HCSO) which provides:
-a fundamental legal underpinning knowledge of the principles for effective decision-making
-appropriate physical skills which are adaptable across the spectrum of subject categories which an officer can encounter
-sufficient scenario-based practice and immersion which effectively builds the required skills for this complex role.
This physical skills development is deployed against a backdrop of in-depth training for Healthcare Security Officer in the NHS on the Vistelar training programme for conflict management and crisis intervention. Physical skills are ‘meshed’ with verbal skills in all possible training evolutions, creating a seamless programme of patient or visitor management during an incident of aggression, violence or emotional disturbance.
Healthcare Security Officers learn through a series of task-based exercises how to deal with different situations:
-Encountering a violent patient in the Emergency Department who has assaulted a nurse
-Guiding a person who has received treatment and has been discharged, off the premises
-Approaching a person in a restricted area to ask them about their needs and request that they move along
-Being called to a mental health unit to assist NHS staff with an out-of-control situation
-Approaching a person in a waiting area who is escalating and intimidating others
-Encountering a patient with dementia who wants to leave the building and who lacks capacity
By exploring these scenarios with Healthcare Security Officer in the NHS and working through the approach considerations, verbal considerations and finally the possibilities if/when the situation becomes kinetic through physically violent behaviour, the training programme builds good habits, encourages ‘procedural justice’ and reinforces the deployment of appropriate physical tactics to provide a robust response-ability within the teams.
An important dimension of the Healthcare Security Officer in the NHS role is that the officer may be called to deal with any kind of incident, and in public places, being observed by the community of people at the hospital. The subject the Healthcare Security Officer in the NHS encounters may be a distressed young child, a confused elderly person, a middle-aged person experiencing an emotional disturbance or a highly capable young adult who is presenting with extreme violence. Variances for how these situations need to be managed are incorporated into the training to encourage a well-rounded and adaptable approach from the Healthcare Security Officer in the NHS team.
The tactics taught during the course are evidence-based, developed from core principles of human physiology and psychology such as the Startle Reflex, the deployment of Gross Motor Skills during High Stress, Stimulus Recognition, Muscle Recruitment. None of the control, restraint or holding tactics taught on our courses require the use of pain for their primary effectiveness. Instead, our tactics deploy leverage, mechanical advantage and posture / body positioning to the greatest effect and to achieve the aims of any intervention.
Dynamis is an Institute of Conflict Management-Accredited Quality Award Centre (#2201) with Director of Training Gerard O’Dea holding the ICM’s highest-level trainer award, the Physical Skills Tutor Award (PSTA) for the delivery of Physical Intervention skills training for the health and social care sector.