Mastering De-Escalation Skills in a Psychiatric Healthcare Setting (Unrestrained Episode 76)

Check out this podcast interview for fresh ideas on how to refresh your staff's crisis management skills!
(And learn more in our blog post about this interview: www.crisisprev...)
In this interview, training specialist and CPI Certified Instructor Christian Milovich explains how he accomplishes meaningful refresher training of CPI’s Nonviolent Crisis Intervention® at Oaklawn Psychiatric Center, a mental health center serving 4 cities on 4 campuses in northern Indiana.
Christian believes that verbal de-escalation and physical holding skills can be an invaluable asset to healthcare workers who deal with a range of challenging behaviors. But he's also keenly aware that these skills are only meaningful if the people using them have the recall and facility that frequent refresher training provides.
Our interview with Christian spans a wide range of topics surrounding how CPI training impacts the day-to-day lives of Oaklawn employees and their clients. In the interview, you’ll learn:
● How a client incident put an ironic spin on Christian’s comment, “I really should not even be here, because I’m never going to put my hands on somebody,” that he said to his first CPI Instructor during training. 8:30
● Why Christian feels he is a better husband, father, and employee due to CPI training. 11:05
● Christian’s surprising revelation about the people with whom he is “worst” at using CPI skills. 12:26
● How Oaklawn’s “Monthly Booster” training works and why it is so effective as refresher training. 15:25
● How Christian de-escalated a substance-impaired man yelling at his doctor for an early refill on his prescription for a controlled substance. 17:00
● Why a de-escalation technique Christian calls a “reality slap” (not a physical strike) can be effective at bringing a person in crisis back to the present moment. 18:58
● How a youth advisory committee, formed from kids in Oaklawn’s residential treatment program, gives feedback about how well CPI techniques-verbal de-escalation and holding skills-are utilized by staff. 25:33
● Why CPI-trained staff can still be trauma-informed when they have someone in a physical restraint hold. 27:09
● Why Christian believes in CPI training and why refresher training holds the key to ensuring that CPI training becomes ingrained in an organization’s culture. 31:35
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