Handle With Care Behavior Management System is the life's work of Bruce Chapman who developed this legendary crisis intervention system on the locked psychiatric in-patient unit at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, at a place and a time when "community psychiatry" was being pioneered.  Handle With Care® Behavior Management System®, Inc. (“HWC”) verbal de-escalation and physical intervention training programs have been making other human service environments safer for over 30 years.  

Bruce Chapman, President and Founder of HWC, created Handle With Care technology from 1973 to 1984 on the locked inpatient psychiatric unit of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, where he was regarded as the hospital’s authority on the prevention and management of aggression and suicide. 

The verbal intervention components of Handle With Care are based on twelve years of experience working with clients in crisis.  The Tension/Tension Reduction Cycle (T/TRC)™ and The Solid Object Relationship (SORM)™ Models which form the theoretical foundation of HWC’s verbal program were created and developed in the context of the locked psychiatric unit of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia.  After undergoing intense medical and professional review, the models were made part of the orientation program for Psychiatric Residents of the Institute of Pennsylania Hospital.  As a result of his work and contribution to the field of safely managing aggressive behavior through verbal de-escalation and non-injurious passive restraint, Mr. Chapman was the only non- professional ever invited to join the faculty at The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital.  These verbal models are now part of the theoretical foundation of thousands of behavior management programs and plans across the country and internationally.

HWC's physical intervention technology is based on the Primary Restraint Technique (PRT)® discovered by Bruce in 1974 during a potentially life threatening psychiatric emergency.  The PRT is a safe, powerful and biomechanically efficient passive restraint method that provides an unprecedented level of therapeutic control without inflicting pain or injury.  The PRT® has always been a standing hold first and foremost and there is not a more mechanically effective standing hold anywhere within the realm of passive and benign restraint than a standing PRT.  HWC’s PRT standing hold and the PRT seated hold are available to staff for those clients and situations that can be safely managed with a less intrusive intervention.   

The PRT®, is the only physical technique in history to be granted a U.S. and International Patent (US 6273091 and 6360748 “apparatus and method for safely maintaining a restraining hold on a person”). This patent was granted specifically for our ability to eliminate chest compression and the possibility of positional asphyxiation during our prone holding method.  The patent includes a constellation of safeguards which are comprehensively documented (with copyrighted text, illustrations and video), meticulously instructed and used with the PRT whenever it is used in is prone configuration.  Chief and foremost among those safeguards is a method called the “Tripod Modification™.”  This method creates a highly effective “weight bearing bridge” which eliminates any weight from being placed on the back or chest of the person being restrained.  This Tripod Modification method can be facilitated by an apparatus called the “PRT Tripod Stand™.”  While a PRT Tripod Stand is not required or necessary to perform a Tripod Modification, it does make it easier and more comfortable for the person performing the hold.