Profession-Specific Courses for Law Enforcement, Corrections, Private Security, EMS & Fire, Worksite, Social Services, Medical Facilities and Schools
Our society is becoming increasingly violent, and sadly, mentally ill individuals are not immune to this trend. With substance abuse and poverty compounding problems, agencies must become increasingly concerned to assist their employees in maintaining their own safety. Aggressive behavior often occurs with no advanced warning. It can occur in an individual’s home, out on the street, or in a hospital.
We offer training in a tailor made format to suit the needs of your agency. Each training is directly geared to the professional responsibilities of your agency or worksite. Our program is designed to address concerns around the types of individuals you must interact with, and the types of aggression that they potentially express.
Core Program
The core program can include:
- Verbal de-escalation techniques
- Basic understanding of mental illness
- Use of spacing, stance, the eyes and voice to calm an individual or establish control
- Establishing lines of communication with the mentally ill
- Physical evasion and protective tactics, using environmental tools, during attacks
- Balancing the demands of difficult individuals with the needs of other people, absolutely including your staff
Your law enforcement, clinical, teaching, or intervention skills will be greatly enhanced. When you feel both strong and confident, you are able to offer a powerful compassion that draws even volatile people to you in trust. At all times, verbal de-escalation tactics are placed within a frame that includes necessary use-of-force, be it self-defense or defensive tactics, depending on your professional responsibliites.
Supplemental Information: Required for All Trainings
The participants each must purchase or have purchased for them copies of the Edgework book associated with their profession. (see Edgework Books)
The Method
Workshops on aggression, drug abuse, dangerous behavior, suicide, mental illness, hostage negotiations, and stalking can be informative and useful. But they are rarely enjoyable. As troubling as these subjects may be, a deadly serious or gravely portentous workshop can actually add to a sense of stress – and even fear – among employees. On the other hand, some training is so clinical and dry that you feel the life sucked out of you as you sit in your chair.
Edgework training, however, takes a different approach. We have found that the best way to keep ourselves not only calm and strong, but also quite happy, is the ability to laugh at ourselves, our fears and the situations we finds himself in. We incorporate this humor to great effect in our training and workshops.
Participants find, sometimes to their surprise, that they are relaxed, even though they are focusing on such subjects as aggression, suicide or severe mental illness. We sometimes tell outrageous stories that illustrate a telling point, or recounts a salty portrayal of not only our own successes, but also our own mistakes. Laughter encourages a sense of confidence and strength, because you are learning in a state of relaxation. Consider learning a new sport – your coach will tell you over and over again to loosen up. Even in learning about the extremes of human behavior, the goal is the same: relax to stay aware and effective.
In no way is this sense of humor derisive or unkind – it is simply laughing in the middle of our sometimes ordinary and sometimes remarkable lives, lives that occasionally involve dealing with dangerous members of our society. We bring their own engaging talents, provide this unique learning experience to all Edgework clients.
Edgework directly contracts with agencies and businesses, customizing the training for an institution’s particular needs. Please go to our Customer List to view a list of institutions for which Edgework has presented various trainings and workshops.
CIT Teams Training For Law Enforcement
- Edgework staff have worked with a number of CIT training programs. As part of the standard 40 hours of training, we offer between eight and sixteen hours of instruction which can include some or all of the following: the recognition of patterns of behavior which suggest mental illness, strategic communication specific to such behaviors, de-escalation of aggressive and agitated individuals, suicide assessment and intervention specific to law enforcement and dealing with mentally ill children and youth.
- References from CIT team leaders and/or other law enforcement agencies are available upon request