Team Teach
“Team Teach” is the holistic approach we use to deal with the behaviour of people. It is based on risk reduction involving de-escalation strategies, diversion and as a last resort physical intervention. We pride ourselves at Opportunities on providing a safe positive environment. Sometimes some of our service users may get anxious or agitated – we will do our best to help them to calm down using communication skills, distraction techniques and removing triggers where possible.
However there may be times when service users need more help to calm down – this may require staff physical support to ensure their safety, the safety of other service users and staff, or that property is not seriously damaged. This can require physical intervention. At Opportunities we have adopted the Team Teach approach to manage challenging behaviour. All our staff have been trained in the use of this approach and we have tutors available who carry out initial training, ongoing refresher training and advise staff on managing behaviour.
All incidents where a service user needs to be held to help them calm down are recorded. Service users who are likely to need help in this way will have an Individual Behaviour Management Plan and a Positive Handling Plan that will be discussed and consistently followed. We will also share this information with other people who may also be supporting the service user eg. Transport links, short breaks, domiciliary care providers and link family.