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Sectors > Developmental Disabilities
- Our Purpose
The purpose of The Mandt System® is to build healthy relationships in the workplace. We have been doing this since 1975, giving us over three decades of experience which we have used to improve the work we do and the services we offer. All human services are provided in the context of relationships, and the first set of relationships we address are staff to staff relationships.
Of the approximately 2,000 organizations using The Mandt System® in the U.S. and Canada, over half work with people affected by developmental disabilities. Included in this are state operated developmental centers in Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Delaware, Georgia, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, and large, multi-state private providers such as Res-Care and Mosaic. However, the vast majority of certified trainers work in community based programs for persons affected by developmental disabilities, including waiver funded residential and vocational services.
The evidence of our effectiveness is seen in the data from the above organizations, who report they have all experienced significant decreases in the frequency and duration of restraint, as well as in injuries to staff and individuals served.
Contrary to perceptions, we are not primarily a vendor of restraint training. Our focus is on building healthy relationships in the workplace, in order to help our customers improve the quality of work and quality of life of all concerned. We do teach restraint, although for every hour spent teaching restraint in The Mandt System® program, we spend 3 hours teaching how to prevent restraint, and an additional 2 hours teaching how to de-escalate a potentially aggressive situation so restraint again is not needed.
- Our Format
We utilize a Train-the-Trainer model, certifying trainers for a period of 2 (two) years. Staff at the organizations in which the certified trainers provide training are certified for a period of one year. Annual re-certification is required.
We have had a great deal of experience helping organizations to transition from other types of restraint training approaches to The Mandt System®. Our approach is, in many ways, very different from most if not all other vendors, in the non-physical as well as the physical skills we teach. Corporate Culture Change program is a one day workshop for key administrative and supervisory staff that helps them to lay the groundwork for the culture change that is needed to fully implement The Mandt System®. In unionized settings, we also recommend that union leadership attend in order to minimize the miscommunication and misperception that often accompanies changes such as this. The cost of the program is $2,000 and is inclusive of all charges such as per diem, transportation, etc.
- Our Programs
As stated earlier, building healthy relationships in the workplace is our ultimate goal. We use information from the Canadian Policy Research Network (CPRN, 2002) to define the components of healthy workplace relationships. We also provide staff with a framework to understand the behaviors people use as they communicate their fear, frustration, anxiety and tension, which we believe are at the root of what many people term “challenging behaviors.”
We consciously focus on teaching people concepts prior to teaching them technique. We utilize an approach pioneered by the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies (http://www.behavior.org) that has 10 elements in a “Behavior Based Safety” approach which they teach to factory workers, retail employees, etc., to increase safety in the workplace. Teaching concepts before technique is important in that if staff only know techniques, they will probably encounter a situation for which the technique is not appropriate. Without knowledge of the underlying concepts, they will find themselves unable to respond appropriately.
We have built a framework within which we teach our program. It comes from an article by Robert L. Katz, first published in Harvard Business Review, in which he stated that businesses needed leaders with Relational, Conceptual, and Technical skills. We have organized The Mandt System® using this framework.
The Mandt System® has three components in our training – Relational Skills, Conceptual Skills, and Technical Skills. Known as the “RCT” program, it is taught in a Train-the-Trainer format which takes 5 full days of training, from 8:00am to 5:00pm Monday through Friday. The components of the course are:
RELATIONAL SKILLS |
CONCEPTUAL SKILLS |
TECHNICAL SKILLS |
Chapter 1 – Building Healthy Relationships focuses on understanding how to Recognize, Assess, Decide, Act and Review (use your RADAR) to prevent incidents from occurring. It also looks at the needs of people (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) and understanding how people respond to stress. |
Chapter 4 – Trauma Informed Services is a sub-clinical training that gives staff an awareness of the effects of trauma on human beings. The chapter was written with the input of the National Technical Assistance Center and strives to help organizations create environments that do not re-traumatize individuals served. |
Chapter 8 – Assisting and Supporting lays down the foundations for all of the physical skills utilized in The Mandt System®. The three components of all physical skills are: Stance and Balance, Body Mechanics and Movement, and Body Positioning. A reasonable ability to maintain balance under physical duress is required. |
Chapter 2 – Building Healthy Communication Skills provides training on how to more effectively communicate to (a) build health relationships, (b) prevent incidents, and (c) de-escalate incidents if they occur. Skills for de-escalating incidents are taught. |
Chapter 5 – Positive Behavior Support teaches staff how to implement behavior support strategies. It does not teach people how to write these plans. The primary source of information is Northern Arizona University. |
Chapter 9 – Separating (Escape and Evasion Techniques) addresses situations where people have been grabbed (hair, clothing, arm, attempted choke, bite) and teaches how to gain release while de-escalating and preventing injury. |
Chapter 3 – Building Healthy Conflict Resolution Skills teaches how to resolve conflict by communicating and building healthy relationships with each other. Skills for defusing conflicts and de-escalating situations are taught. |
Chapter 6 – Liability and Legal Issues provides an overview of the legal issues surrounding the prevention and, if needed, use of restraint. |
Chapter 10 – Restraining – this chapter teaches how to restrain an individual if their behavior rises to the legal threshold whereby restraint is required and justified. The legal thresholds are discussed and presented. |
We recommend that the above 3 chapters be taught to individuals served as a way of preparing them to become integrated into the community and/or teach them to manage their own behavior. |
Chapter 7 – Medical Risks of Restraint is required to be taught prior to teaching chapter 10. The primary sources of this information are the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) and Wanda Mohr, Ph.D., MSN, RN |
Advanced Technical Skills teaches how to prevent and, if needed, respond to severe aggression and violence. It may not be needed for staff working in community based homes, office settings, etc. |
For every hour that we teach restraint, we spend three hours on prevention and two hours on de-escalation. If we can prevent an interaction between people from becoming an incident, we have increased the safety of all staff and people served. We know that if staff are in relationships with other staff where dignity and respect between the staff are evident that people supported feel safer. If staff feel and act safe with each other, then people supported are more likely to feel safe with the staff.
In order to “calm down” people must feel safe. If people do not feel safe, they will not calm down. Our program focuses first on building healthy relationships between staff at all levels of the organization, and then on being role models so the youth we serve can learn from us. They will learn much more from how we as staff behave towards each other and them than from what we teach in any curriculum.
