Even some of us OT's in the United States often read our E-mails
during summer holiday time. For an RN, your sense of humour is okay!
In Michigan, those who are employed in the forensic or correctional
settings are trained in a process called "Compliance, Direction, Take
Down (CDT). This training is based on a concept of "non-deadly force"
It is offered by a private corporation that does training all across
the U.S. They came to our facility and trained about 15 of our
security officers, who in turn train ALL prisoner contact personnel.
I don't know, exactly, and to what extent but it has contributed to
fewer staff injuries and the seriousness of the injury. Our figures
on staff injuries are based on days away from work due to injury.
Most injuries here, unfortunately, occur before implementing C & R
procedures. Our prisoners are also mentally ill and often "go off"
without a precipating cause- very unpredictable. We receive an initial
24-40 hours of CDT training and then receive an 8-16 hour annual
update. It does though, in part, use some pressure point techniques
(mostly extremities- upper arms and legs) in the manuvers, but
prisoners are also less apt to become injured in this process.It has
been highly successful here as all staff are expected to assist in C
& R incidents.
Regards,
Martha