When we train education, health and social care staff, we ask them two questions. “What are the expectations of your profession?” Once they’ve listed them all. We then ask, “what would make it easier to satisfy all those expectations?” The most frequent response is “Time”.
The increasing pressure on organisations and their staff to fill in forms, achieve tasks, perform multiple functions at once and follow sometimes apparently non-sensical rules, leads to an increasing sense of frustration in the education, health and social care sector.
The Impact of Time
In our training we discuss how staff frustrations caused by not having enough time might unwittingly impact on the people they support. The lack of time focussed on engaging with people being served, can lead to feelings of isolation, anxiety and even fear. In people with histories of trauma these in turn can lead to increased incidents. Unfortunately, this in turn can lead to the increased use of interventions and the increased use of restraint.
The Lundy Exercise
One of the exercises we use to enable understanding this cause and effect, is the “Lundy Exercise” (see below). It is a fantastic tool to encourage group discussion on what they’d like to see ‘more of’ in their organisations. In these discussions we find that a key area many staff identify is “Patience”.
PBS and Time
In a world where everything is about “now”. Patience is one of the most useful organisational skills to have. Trust requires time, Positive Behavioural Support requires time, understanding the people we support requires time, restraint reduction requires time. Our training focuses on empathy, interaction and preventative strategies that reduce the amount of time spent dealing with conflict.
Let’s try and have more patience within our organisations and let’s try and be more patient with those we support.
What do you want to see more of in your organisation?
If you want to learn more about our training, then get in touch here
James Hourihan
Director Timian Learning and Development