Sirius Fun

I was recently contacted by a colleague from an adventure program to talk about a behavioral emergency action plan and nonviolent crisis intervention. Both of these ideas, adventure and behavior management, are high interest for me so I jumped right in to the conversation. As things progressed and we began to set up a training for program staff I had a thought, why have we never talked about this before? I have worked in adventure for close to 30 years, we intentionally put participants in anxiety producing activities, and yet we have never had a formal conversation about how to deal with the adverse behaviors that may surface. For me it is second nature due to my background in behavior management and modification programs, but for new or incoming folks it is not a standard training. Don’t get me wrong the basics are covered, but where is the training in how to support a truly escalating participant? This conversation tied ore to participants who escalate beyond the norms, potentially heading toward a violent outburst. Do other programs train to it? Do they have EAPs in place to deal with it?

The training was great, and there was a lot of conversation around what behaviors people see on a regular basis. When it came to the EAP the input from staff was very helpful. What we started will hopefully continue there and in other places. Do schools have a written EAP for these situations? Let’s face it, school can create great anxiety. Do after school programs? Daycare centers? Where ever we send kids or people who may be stressed and need support? Just thoughts.