HWC PHYSICAL SKILLS TRAINING PROGRAM

Handle With Care's Verbal Program prepares staff to use the power of the relationship to de-escalate the tension level of someone in crisis and avoid physical intervention whenever possible.  Handle With Care's physical skills training enables staff to manage situations where the only appropriate response is the prompt skillful use of physical restraint.  Handle With Care physical trainign expands on the verbal program and integrates a physical component that teaches staff how to manage critical events through teamwork, and interventions designed to ensure confidence, safety and maintain the dignity and therapeutic relationship between staff and consumer.   Handle With Care Physical Skills Training can be divided into 5 main components: Understanding personal space Personal defense Physical restraint Escort Specialized & optional intervention The centerpiece of the Handle With Care personal defense and physical restraint technology is the Primary Restraint Technique (PRT)®.  The PRT interfaces uniquely with the Personal Defense System, creating a totally integrated non-injurious self-defense system that gives staff the ability to smoothly transition from a personal defense crisis into the most powerful passive restraint method in the world.

The Primary Restraint Technique® (PRT)®    The Handle With Care story began in 1974 when a 21-year-old Bruce Chapman discovered the legendary Primary Restraint Technique (PRT)® on the locked psychiatric unit of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia.  Over 25 years of research and development have made the PRT the most thoroughly engineered passive subduing hold and takedown in the industry.  The PRT® in the neutral position is the only "passive holding" method in history to deserve the protection of the U.S. Patent Office specifically for our ability to eliminate chest compression and the possibility of positional asphyxiation.

  The PRT The PRT is an easy to teach, orthopedically sound physical hold that offers unprecedented mechanical advantage without pain or injury.  The PRT is a powerful standing hold first and foremost and there is not a more mechanically effective standing hold anywhere within the realm of passive and benign restraint.  HWC’s PRT standing hold and the PRT seated hold are available to staff for those clients and situations that can be safely managed from a standing or seated position.  We also offer restraint options that are based on the PRT, including techniques suitable for children and adults with special orthopedic, medical and physical conditions (including pregnancy).  HWC’s physical program includes a special proprietary seated hold for use with smaller children as young as three, non-violent personal defense, team restraint and a proprietary collection of intervention strategies including 3rd person saves and breaking up fights that are adapted to each agency’s mission and policies.  We also offer a proprietary supine (face-up) holding method. 

A True Story When the State of Texas was evaluating training programs, they sent a delegation of three staff to another state to get a first hand look at how Handle With Care was working there.  They watched the training, spoke to the staff and spoke to some of the kids in treatment at the facility.  They were sold when the kids told them the PRT "was the best restraint technique" they had ever seen.  You can't fool a kid.

The PRT Story

Handle With Care was born in May, 1973 when I, Bruce Chapman and HWC’s founder, applied for a Psych Tech position at the 18 bed psychiatric intensive care unit at historic Pennsylvania Hospital.  The unit served as the inpatient component to Hall Mercer, one of the first mental health centers established under the1966 Community Mental Health Act.

 

Nine months after my hiring, in January 1974, we found ourselves with a very large, agitated, threatening and psychotic young man who was court-committed to the hospital and demanding immediate discharge.  We called hospital security and had him surrounded at the door of the nurses’ station and attempted to talk him into accompanying us to seclusion voluntarily.  In his confusion, he had let the jacket he was wearing fall off his shoulders, down to the creases of his elbows.  He suddenly stooped forward to grab an upholstery-covered brick (a door stop) and glared at his target – two secretaries who were sitting in the nurses’ station.  With his jacket drawing his arms behind him, I grabbed him the only way that made sense at the time and discovered what is now internationally known as the Primary Restraint Technique®.

   

While we may never know exactly how many “saves” can be credited to the PRT, we do know that the PRT when used with its constellation of safeguards has an unprecedented record of safety.  In over 30 years it has never been implicated in a catastrophic event with over a million plus (estimated) applications across virtually every field of human services, including over 1000 agencies in 50 States, United States Territories, Canada and Europe.

The Personal Defense System The personal defense system was engineered to meet the following design criteria: All of the personal defense techniques were designed to be effective and non-injurious.

All of the personal defense techniques were designed to interface with the Primary Restraint Technique (PRT).  Staff have a choice to either disingage themselves or another or to transition from personal defense into a physical hold.

All of the personal defense techniques were designed to work effectively in what we call "3rd person save" situations.  A responsible direct care worker must be able to respond to an assault on someone other than herself.  Handle with Care training provides an unprecedented level of therapeutic control in these situations.

Physical Restraint & The Primary Restraint Technique (PRT) HWC's physical intervention program was engineered to meet the following design criteria: HWC's physical program was designed as an appropriate, natural and sometimes necessary extension of the therapeutic relationship.

The PRT is an easy to learn, orthopedically safe and powerful standing method that offers unprecedented mechanical advantage without pain or injury.  A standing PRT communicates therapeutic control so effectively that a takedown is usually unnecessary.

The PRT is the only prone or facedown holding method that has always had a built-in safeguard, the Tripod Modification, to prevent chest compression or the possibility of positional asphyxiation.  Our first product, the PRT Tripod Stand, was developed specifically for agencies that are unable to terminate floor restraints quickly because of the consumers they serve or because they do not use mechanical restraints.

HWC's physical program also offers "non prone restraint" options that are based on the PRT, including a two person supine (face up) restraint method, a special holding metod for smaller children and other modifications for children and consumers with orthopedic, medical and physical conditions (including pregnancy).

The Team Restraint System A team approach is always the best approach.  We believe that the use of single person restraint methods, even one as effective as the PRT, should be limited to emergencies when there are no other options.  Our two and four person team restraint components are engineered around the PRT in a way that eliminates confusion and chaos.  Based on the number of staff that can normally respond to a crisis at your agency, we customize a two or four person team deployment system with tactical adjustments for a wide range of behaviors and situations. If you use locked or unlocked seclusion (time out or quiet room) or mechanical restraints we will teach you our methods of application and make solid recommendations regarding their use.