PMVA - 3 Day Training Reviews

The course content was focused on medical settings and was limited to any other types of scenarios. I would have hoped to understand the skills within alternative settings and the training offering a balanced approach to the possibilities of all types of environments that may need to utilise such skills. The trainers were late all three days unfortunately it couldn’t be helped I’m sure. Yet we had been informed more than once that if we were to arrive late we risked our place on the course. The agenda and timings for the day were not shared. House keeping was not shared either. Leaving an unpredictability to the day.

The course was informative. A lot of emphasis on learners arriving on time each day , with the threat not being able to attend if late . Trainer was late 45 minutes first day , 15,minutes day 2, 25 minutes late on day 3 . Lots of slides missing in the handout , compared to what was shown to us on the projecter. Some content felt rushed, due to lateness, so catching up was needed . Once we for in to the swing of things , the course was good a points . Some learners would be taking over videos , making it hard to hear, this initially wasn’t challenged and we had to ask them to be quiet. Daniel was very good and keep the class motivated and engaged . The trainer in the last afternoon was tried , had eaten to much, as she had shared this’. And her motivation and attitude was reflected on how she was feeling , which in turn the learners picked up on and were also not engaging . But in all I did enjoy the course , met some nice people .

It was all good and I enjoyed the training.

1. Some slides need updating eg ‘challenging behaviour’ is now referred to as ‘’behaviours of distress’ or ‘behaviours which challenge’. Use the alternative as well as challenging behaviour? 2. The ‘assault cycle’ is now referred to as ‘the arousal cycle’ which is more accurate 3. Autism is now referred to as Autistic spectrum conditions/ disorder and should mention the triad or days of impairment and associated issues such as obsessions, compulsions, hyposensitivity, hypersensitivity etc. As a trained clinician I thought the slide put up on autism was misleading. 4. Anger can be expressive or instrumental, and hostility can lead to anger. The instructor did not explain this accurately although we kinda got the point. 5. Please refer to functional analysis/ positive behaviour support which is to say all behaviour has meaning. Sometimes we just struggle to work it out. 6. Literature on bullying would be very helpful to refer to in this training and how it can be a trigger for behaviours of distress. 7. Race and culture needs integrating in a more meaningful way. Racism can be a trigger for incidents as people can become offended and wish to communicate this. There can also be racial bias in reporting of clients eg ‘white client advocating for their rights’, ‘black or Asian client arguing or disruptive’. If teaching to make ‘judgements’ about people to decide if physical intervention proportionate how can racial prejudice influence who can be deescalated with conversation and who needs high levels of physical intervention. Photos of people need to show a range of races eg how conditions may look on Black skin eg will lips turn blue or purple. 8. Otherwise excellent course and physical intervention training but spot on and very helpful. I felt strong enough about these issues to mention them in detail as I am a psychologist and this may be the only training some staff get in how to prevent and manage aggressive behaviour. I hope you don’t mind me mentioning this.

Would have liked more theory around strategies that could be used and trialled before hands on is necessary but that may be because of my background in a school with kids rather than high profile/ high risk patients. Not always relevant to my setting but a mandatory training course none the less.