Staff at Comfort Bay Senior Citizens’ Home are being trained to defuse aggressive behaviour, escape physical grabs and calm potentially volatile situations as the institution moves to strengthen safety for both elderly residents and employees.
The six-week de-escalation programme places staff in practical scenarios designed to sharpen how they respond when residents become distressed, confrontational or physically aggressive — without losing sight of the patience, dignity and compassion required in elderly care. Sixteen employees have been selected for the programme, with an initial group of 10 drawn from different areas of the institution, including security.
For Comfort Bay Administrator Nurse Alisha Prince, the training addresses situations staff can encounter while caring for elderly residents and gives employees practical ways to prevent those encounters from escalating. “The training will be very beneficial to the staff in that they will develop the discipline to calm down an aggressive patient, to soothe them and also to simply be able to calm the environment to make it more friendly,” Prince said, adding that given Comfort Bay’s work with the elderly, the training is “definitely much needed.” But the programme goes beyond talking someone down.
Staff are also learning practical techniques to protect themselves during physical confrontations, including how to safely break away from grabs and respond to different forms of attack. Longstanding Correctional Officer Maclean Emmanuel, who contributed to the training, said those physical skills must be paired with patience, courtesy and respectful communication when dealing with residents. “Physically, it’s hands-on training. They learn how to break away from different grabs, how to defend themselves from different attacks and how to speak with respect and deal with different residents,” Emmanuel explained.
He stressed that patience remains one of the most important tools employees can bring to challenging encounters, particularly when working with residents experiencing mental or behavioural difficulties.
For Nurse Loni McDonald, the training has provided lessons she believes can be applied well beyond the workplace. “We learnt how to remain calm in tense and very challenging situations,” McDonald said, describing the ability to work as a team, protect oneself and calm a person who becomes violent as potentially life-saving skills.
The programme comes as institutions responsible for vulnerable populations face the difficult balance of protecting employees while ensuring residents experiencing distress or challenging behaviour continue to be treated with dignity and compassion.
Comfort Bay officials say strengthening employees’ ability to recognize warning signs, control their own responses and safely de-escalate tense encounters is expected to create a more responsive environment for everyone inside the home. The initiative forms part of Comfort Bay’s broader effort to improve the quality of care provided to residents, with emphasis on their emotional, physical, educational and holistic needs.
