How High-Stress Situations Are Professionally Managed At The Brambles
Adults with autism or intellectual disabilities face dozens of external and internal challenges in daily life. To cope with these challenges, they may respond with emotional outbursts, self-harm, or harmful acts toward other residents or staff members.
At The Brambles, we understand the challenges our residents face and we take numerous steps to handle, address, and manage high-stress situations professionally. Here’s how we ensure the safety, peace, and comfort for all of our residents and staff.
Personalized attention and care
Every resident at The Brambles possesses different talents, abilities, and skills. Each person also has unique triggers, challenges, coping techniques, and de-escalation strategy preferences.
We build relationships with each of our residents so we understand their unique needs. Then, we provide the support that helps them feel safe, comfortable, and calm as they reside on campus and interact in the community during our daily outings.
This personalized attention can include therapy that helps residents identify their particular frustrations and triggers. We also help our residents develop coping strategies that de-escalate tension and improve their comfort in a variety of situations.
At The Brambles, we treat every resident like family and provide plenty of opportunities for engagement and participation. Our residents feel nurtured and loved. They receive the support that’s best for their personal development and individual growth. This personalized attention gives each resident the tools needed to reduce stress, promote peace, and handle high-stress situations that may occur.
Customized, flexible placement
Social interactions are part of daily life. We understand that each of our residents has different social capabilities and needs. We evaluate each resident and place individuals near peers they’re likely to get along with. We also tweak placement on an ongoing basis as needed to improve comfort and reduce conflict.
Likewise, we implement an open-door conflict resolution policy. We encourage residents and their family members to address concerns and stressors that arise from social interactions on campus. That allows us to address these concerns quickly, calmly and decisively to ensure the wellbeing of all our residents.
Trained & trustworthy staff
Each of our staff members understands the physical and mental health challenges our residents face. They are well-versed on how autism and other disabilities affect the brain and body. This allows them to better understand individual residents and reduce outbursts, anger, and other unsafe behavior.
Our staff members also learn about therapeutic options and behavior techniques. They have the skills to help residents de-escalate situations, manage conflict, and address other potential triggers as they provide positive support.
With a 1:3 staff-to-resident ratio, we ensure plenty of staff are available to address concerns. There’s always a backup available to de-escalate or manage a high-stress situation anywhere on the grounds.
We also take the time to get to know each resident individually. While some triggers and behaviors are common among our resident population, each person is unique. We spend time building relationships and getting to know each individual so we can recognize when they’re starting to feel agitated, on high alert, or unsafe. When they do, we take the necessary steps to help our residents relax and calm down.
In addition to undergoing training to help our residents, we equip our staff with the tools they need to maintain their own emotional regulation. They can then remain calm and focused no matter what happens.
De-escalation strategies that put residents at ease
When a resident is escalated, he or she is in “fight or flight” mode. To regain a sense of comfort and safety, the resident may elope, self-harm, destroy property, or take other aggressive action.
We understand this tendency and we’re trained to implement dozens of de-escalation strategies across our campus. Some of these strategies include:
- Walking the grounds with supervision
- Immediately removing residents from stressful situations,
- Providing stress relief tools
- Engaging in daily exercise
For maximum results, we encourage residents to use the de-escalation strategies that work for them and to go at their own pace. With this approach, we equip every individual and unique resident to use the tools that best meet his or her needs.
Reduced stress through careful consideration
Every detail of the Brambles facility and program is set up to support our residents’ issues and challenges. The decor, furniture, food, landscaping, and more are designed with careful consideration to the physical, emotional, and mental limitations our residents face. We even provide familiar transportation for a seamless transition to-and-from day support and outside programs.
Ultimately, our goal is to provide a safe, comfortable, and stress-free environment that nurtures, engages, and respects every individual who stays at The Brambles. We remain committed to providing ongoing support and we make all necessary changes to ensure our campus promotes a low-stress environment that reduces potential triggers and meets our residents’ individual needs.
An environment that promotes & creates peace
We created The Brambles with our residents in mind and intentionally incorporated private rooms, wide open spaces, fountains, and plenty of acreage into the design. While we also provide a lively environment with plenty of entertainment and educational activities for our residents to enjoy, the ultimate goal is comfort, safety, and peace.
Hands-off policy to ensure safety
Our first priority is resident and staff safety, and our staff members are trained to restrain residents safely and appropriately. However, we also mandate a hands-off policy.
During high-stress situations, we first implement appropriate de-escalation strategies that should diffuse situations and reduce stress. We only touch residents or use restraint techniques if we have permission to do so and during emergency situations if a resident is in danger of self-harm or harming others.
We are trained & trusted with high-stress situations
The Brambles remains committed to each individual we serve. During high-stress situations, we maintain a professional attitude as we manage the challenges and issues our residents face. Ultimately, our desire is for each person at The Brambles to feel safe, nurtured, and loved.
If you know someone who may benefit from this kind of care and attention, click here to learn more about The Brambles or call us at 804-725-3800.
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