Over the past few years many of you will have become aware of Simon Sinek and his book or the TED Talk “Start with Why” concept. The WHY being the purpose, cause or belief behind what you are doing. Let me share a few examples from Timian’s parent company, the Mandt System.
In 2019 the Queensland, Australia, Department of Education sought permission to look globally at training programmes and approaches that would best fit their progressive policy framework to Reduce Restrictive Practices across their state. They chose our parent company, the Mandt System. Why?
In 2018 Dr Yolanda McDade defended her Doctoral Thesis looking at the Data around use of restraint at the East Mississippi State Hospital over a 7-year period with the initial three years looking at the original programme data, year four the roll out of the Mandt System and years five, six and seven charting the reduction in restraint episodes and other metrics following implementation. Dr. McDade chose our parent company for this research. Why?
In 2016 Professor Reece Peterson and Elisabeth Kane (University of Lincoln-Nebraska) reviewed 17 training providers in an ‘Update on Physical Restraint & Seclusion Policy Issues & Training Content’. The Mandt System is identified as spending more curriculum time on Crisis De-escalation and Dangers and Risks of Restraint than any other training provider. Why?
In 2012 Kevin Ann Huckshorn published ‘Changing Cultures of State Psychiatric Hospital to Reduce Client Seclusion and Restraint’ for the State of Delaware. The Workforce Development component (core strategy #3) we are proud that they employed the Mandt System Programme to deliver alternative methods to deal with agitated and aggressive patients. Why?
These are just four examples from the immediate preceding years, however go back over the 47 years Mandt have been sharing their approaches and the examples are legion. So, to go back to the opening question, what is the WHY of the Mandt Family?
The belief behind what the Mandt System and Timian are doing is simple and can be distilled into these elements:
- We believe that all people have an equal right to safety, staff as much as those being supported.
- We believe that building healthy relationships, communication and conflict resolution is the foundation of safer services.
- We believe that a Positive Behaviour Support, Trauma Informed Approach should underpin everything that we teach.
When organisation to staff, or staff to staff relationships are unhealthy then there is a risk that the relational exhaust being breathed by service users can be toxic. Toxic air and toxic environments are less able to promote healing or safety than those with non-toxic air. At a basic level those individual researchers, practitioners and leadership in the above examples have all understood this basic premise. With this understanding they believed that the Mandt family as a curriculum and methodology represented or represents the best learning and development approach to promote safety.
If any of this resonates with you or you wish to find out more, get in touch with my colleague Mark Gorman at Mark@timian.co.uk. We would love to share more from our rich and storied history of reducing restrictive practices, long before it was the trending subject of today.
Simon Kemp – CEO
Mandt System and Timian Learning and Development
