Positive handling

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Positive handling is a term used in British primary and special-needs education for physical restraint. [1] [2] [3] It has been described as "risk-reduced physical interventions that form part of the holistic response" [4] The term has been in use since at least 2000. [5]

Positive handling refers to a graduated approach that moves towards the control of extreme behaviour by adopting the least intrusive intervention for the shortest period of time to achieve the aim. It is one of the most efficient method of training on how to control a disruptive pupil whilst protecting them, and remaining compliant with legislation.

The objective of prevention and intervention techniques is to prevent school violence from occurring. Support for staff is the key to handling student aggression in schools.

To support it, the staff requires training, which is also a legal obligation of teaching institutions. The avoidance of any physical intervention is a first priority. The principle involves the graduated use of de-escalation approaches before resorting to physical intervention as the last resort, if any other approaches have failed or are likely to fail.

Using excessive force is abusive and unlawful, but the danger lies in the term "Minimum Force". Unintentionally, we can enter a situation known as "The law of unintended consequence".[ neutrality is disputed ]

Positive Handling is a statutory and mandatory training, in accordance to Section 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

It represents a significant investment and undertaking for all staff. Increasingly, staff and managers have expressed the need to acknowledge existing understanding and experience due to raising violence in schools.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

Violence is the use of physical force to cause harm to people, animals, or property, such as pain, injury, death, damage, or destruction. Some definitions are somewhat broader, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Physical restraint</span> Obstruction of physical movement

Physical restraint refers to means of purposely limiting or obstructing the freedom of a person's bodily movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Physical education</span> Educational course related to the physique and care of the body

Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys. Ed. or PE, is a subject taught in schools around the world. PE is taught during primary and secondary education and encourages psychomotor, cognitive, and affective learning through physical activity and movement exploration to promote health and physical fitness. When taught correctly and in a positive manner, children and teens can receive a storm of health benefits. These include reduced metabolic disease risk, improved cardiorespiratory fitness, and better mental health. In addition, PE classes can produce positive effects on students' behavior and academic performance. Research has shown that there is a positive correlation between brain development and exercising. Researchers in 2007 found a profound gain in English Arts standardized test scores among students who had 56 hours of physical education in a year, compared to those who had 28 hours of physical education a year.

Antisocial behaviours are actions which are considered to violate the rights of or otherwise harm others by committing crime or nuisance, such as stealing and physical attack or noncriminal behaviours such as lying and manipulation. It is considered to be disruptive to others in society. This can be carried out in various ways, which includes, but is not limited to, intentional aggression, as well as covert and overt hostility. Anti-social behaviour also develops through social interaction within the family and community. It continuously affects a child's temperament, cognitive ability and their involvement with negative peers, dramatically affecting children's cooperative problem-solving skills. Many people also label behaviour which is deemed contrary to prevailing norms for social conduct as anti-social behaviour. However, researchers have stated that it is a difficult term to define, particularly in the United Kingdom where many acts fall into its category. The term is especially used in British English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Physical abuse</span> Medical condition

Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury, trauma, bodily harm or other physical suffering to another person or animal by way of bodily contact. Physical abuse is a type of abuse that involves physical violence, such as hitting, kicking, pushing, biting, choking, throwing objects, and using weapons. Physical abuse also includes using restraints or confinement, such as tying someone up, locking them in a room, or restraining them with drugs or alcohol. Physical abuse can also include withholding basic needs, such as food, clothing, or medical care. In addition to the physical injuries caused by physical abuse, it can also lead to psychological trauma, such as fear, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Physical abuse can occur in any relationship, including those between family members, partners, and caregivers. It can also occur in institutional settings, such as nursing homes, schools, and prisons. Physical abuse can have long-term physical, psychological, and social consequences, and can even be fatal.

A form of child abuse, child neglect is an act of caregivers that results in depriving a child of their basic needs, such as the failure to provide adequate supervision, health care, clothing, or housing, as well as other physical, emotional, social, educational, and safety needs. All societies have established that there are necessary behaviours a caregiver must provide for a child to develop physically, socially, and emotionally. Causes of neglect may result from several parenting problems including mental disorders, unplanned pregnancy, substance use disorder, unemployment, over employment, domestic violence, and, in special cases, poverty.

School violence includes violence between school students as well as attacks by students on school staff. It encompasses physical violence, including student-on-student fighting, corporal punishment; psychological violence such as verbal abuse, and sexual violence, including rape and sexual harassment. It includes many forms of bullying and carrying weapons to school. The one or more perpetrators typically have more physical, social, and/or psychological power than the victim. It is a widely accepted serious societal problem in recent decades in many countries, especially where weapons such as guns or knives are involved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children</span> University Organization

The University of North Carolina TEACCH Autism Program creates and disseminates community-based services, training programs, and research for individuals of all ages and skill levels with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), to enhance the quality of life for them and their families across the lifespan.

Medical restraints are physical restraints used during certain medical procedures to restrain patients with (supposedly) the minimum of discomfort and pain and to prevent them from injuring themselves or others.

Positive behavior support (PBS) uses tools from applied behaviour analysis and values of normalisation and social role valorisation theory to improve quality of life, usually in schools. PBS uses functional analysis to understand what maintains an individual's challenging behavior and how to support the individual to get these needs met in more appropriate way, instead of using 'challenging behaviours'. People's inappropriate behaviors are difficult to change because they are functional; they serve a purpose for them. These behaviors may be supported by reinforcement in the environment. People may inadvertently reinforce undesired behaviors by providing objects and/or attention because of the behavior.

Crisis intervention is a time-limited intervention with a specific psychotherapeutic approach to immediately stabilize those in crisis.

Intensive interaction is an approach for teaching communication skills to people with autistim and severe learning difficulties who are still in early stages of development. The approach focuses on teaching the communication concepts and performances that precede speech development. The approach is additionally used to promote social engagement and learning for people who, for a range of reasons, find sociability problematic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Residential treatment center</span> Live-in healthcare facility

A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral problems. Residential treatment may be considered the "last-ditch" approach to treating abnormal psychology or psychopathology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School bullying</span> Type of bullying in an educational setting

School bullying, like bullying outside the school context, refers to one or more perpetrators who have greater physical strength or more social power than their victim and who repeatedly act aggressively toward their victim. Bullying can be verbal or physical. Bullying, with its ongoing character, is distinct from one-off types of peer conflict. Different types of school bullying include ongoing physical, emotional, and/or verbal aggression. Cyberbullying and sexual bullying are also types of bullying. Bullying even exists in higher education. There are warning signs that suggest that a child is being bullied, a child is acting as a bully, or a child has witnessed bullying at school.

Attachment-based therapy applies to interventions or approaches based on attachment theory, originated by John Bowlby. These range from individual therapeutic approaches to public health programs to interventions specifically designed for foster carers. Although attachment theory has become a major scientific theory of socioemotional development with one of the broadest, deepest research lines in modern psychology, attachment theory has, until recently, been less clinically applied than theories with far less empirical support. This may be partly due to lack of attention paid to clinical application by Bowlby himself and partly due to broader meanings of the word 'attachment' used amongst practitioners. It may also be partly due to the mistaken association of attachment theory with the pseudo-scientific interventions misleadingly known as attachment therapy. The approaches set out below are examples of recent clinical applications of attachment theory by mainstream attachment theorists and clinicians and are aimed at infants or children who have developed or are at risk of developing less desirable, insecure attachment styles or an attachment disorder.

The Keeping All Students Safe Act or KASSA is designed to protect children from the abuse of restraint and seclusion in school. The first Congressional bill was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on December 9, 2007, and named the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act. The primary sponsors of the two bills are Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Congressman George Miller (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, and Congressman Gregg Harper (R-MS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Management of domestic violence</span>

The management of domestic violence deals with the treatment of victims of domestic violence and preventing repetitions of such violence. The response to domestic violence in Western countries is typically a combined effort between law enforcement, social services, and health care. The role of each has evolved as domestic violence has been brought more into public view.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early childhood development</span> Rapid physical, psychological and social growth

Early childhood development is the period of rapid physical, psychological and social growth and change that begins before birth and extends into early childhood. While early childhood is not well defined, one source asserts that the early years begin in utero and last until 3 years of age.

A government inquiry into school violence in 1989 found that 2 percent of teachers had reported facing physical aggression. In 2007 a survey of 6,000 teachers by the teachers' trade union NASUWT found that over 16% claimed to have been physically assaulted by students in the previous two years. On the basis of police statistics found through a Freedom of Information request, in 2007 there were more than 7,000 cases of the police being called to deal with violence in schools in England.

PSYCHLOPS is a type of psychological testing, a tool used in primary care to measure mental health outcomes and as a quality of life measure.

References

  1. Reid, Ken; Morgan, Nicola S. (2012). Tackling Behaviour in Your Primary School: A Practical Handbook for Teachers. Routledge. p. 46. ISBN   9780415670234. In fact restraint is often referred to by professionals as "positive handling"
  2. Brooke, Adrian; Welton, Steve (2014-06-03). The Health Handbook for Schools. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-134-14142-5.
  3. Hughes, Pat (2009-12-16). Breaking Barriers to Learning in Primary Schools: An Integrated Approach to Children's Services. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-135-26468-0.
  4. Hayden, Carol (2007). Children in Trouble: The Role of Families, Schools and Communities. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 94. ISBN   9780230207998 . Retrieved 29 March 2016.[ permanent dead link ]
  5. Smith, Jacqui (25 July 2000). "Hansard: Written answers". House of Commons. Retrieved 29 March 2016. To improve the education for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties in particular, this year we have:... consulted on additional guidance on promoting positive handling strategies for pupils with severe behavioural difficulties.