Your Questions Answered

Interested in evidence-based, humane reinforcement strategies? We’ve put together some commonly asked questions to give you more information about QBS and the training programs we offer.

Safety-Care® FAQs

Safety-Care is a competency-based crisis prevention intervention training program for professional staff who work with individuals who have the potential for dangerous behavior. It was developed and is provided by QBS.
How is Safety-Care different from other crisis prevention courses?

There are many ways that Safety-Care differs from other behavioral safety or “crisis management” courses. These include:

  • Safety-Care procedures are drawn extensively from research in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). The program is fully based on a positive reinforcement paradigm — every technique. However, the curriculum is designed to be taught by and for staff who may or may not have prior training or experience with ABA procedures and concepts.
  • We teach important concepts of behavior support directly within the course, including reinforcement, functional alternatives, and differential reinforcement.
  • Safety-Care is designed to be effective both with individuals who have the communication skills to engage in complex verbal interactions and those who do not.
  • De-Escalation procedures are based not on a vague “processing” approach but on identifying, prompting, and reinforcing specific alternative behaviors. This procedure is easier for staff to learn and less likely to reinforce crisis behaviors.
  • Physical procedures are designed to be both effective and gentle. Each procedure avoids any stress/hyperextension of joints, pain, or skin damage.
  • Safety-Care is focused on practical methods for preventing, minimizing, and managing behavioral crises. Lectures are designed to support the acquisition, practice, and demonstration of competency with a series of specific functional skills.
  • Safety-Care is taught using behavioral instruction methods such as errorless learning, task analysis, and role-playing to ensure competency on each critical skill.
What's included in Safety-Care's curriculum?

The Safety-Care core curriculum is presented in a progressively restrictive format designed to provide staff with skills for prevention, minimization, and management of dangerous or challenging behaviors. Each chapter offers practical, functional skills for use in nearly any educational, human services, or medical setting.

Do you offer train-the-trainer classes?

Yes, we do. We can train a small number of your staff to be trainers, and they can then train and certify your staff to use Safety-Care. We recommend that trainers be experienced with the population served, comfortable with public speaking, and able to learn and perform physical techniques that are moderately strenuous (such as kneeling, standing, and moving quickly).

Do you teach physical holds in Safety-Care?

Yes, we do as optional competencies. Holds are used only when there are no other safe choices and only with utmost care for an individual’s safety and well-being. In the core curriculum, we teach a 1- and 2-person standing hold, how to respond to a drop to the floor, two transport procedures, and a chair hold. Additional holds are taught in Safety-Care modules for programs that need them.

Can Safety-Care be customized to meet our specific training needs?

Yes. There are additional modules that can be added to the Safety-Care core curriculum to make it specifically suited to the needs of your staff and the individuals they serve. You can also choose to abbreviate the course if you wish (within certain limits).

What settings is Safety-Care designed for?

Safety-Care is appropriate for use in residential programs, schools, hospitals, day programs, group homes, foster care, clinics, mental health centers, rehabilitation programs, and other support settings where there is the potential for dangerous behavior.

What settings is Safety-Care not designed for?

Safety-Care is not designed for law enforcement or adult correctional settings. (It is appropriate for any staff, including Security, in healthcare, education, forensic, or human services settings).

What populations is Safety-Care designed for?
  • Ages: Safety-Care has been designed to be safe and effective for a wide range of ages, including children, adolescents, and adults. There are some special sections that are taught for staff who will be working with smaller children.
  • Cognitive and communication ability: Safety-Care is designed to be effective when working with individuals across the full spectrum of cognitive, language, and neurological abilities and disabilities. It provides interventions appropriate both for individuals who are highly verbal and able to engage in complex rational decision making and those who have significant challenges in domains such as communication, executive functioning, and social interaction.
  • Challenging behaviors: Physical aggression, Self-injury, Verbal aggression, Uncooperativeness, Hyperactivity, Suicidality, Elopement, Tantrums, Sexual aggression, Intimidation, Use of weapons, Bullying, Property destruction, Fighting, and more.
  • Treatment modality: Safety-Care is complementary to a wide range of treatment modalities and specialties. These include applied behavior analysis, positive behavior supports, cognitive-behavior therapy, social work, psychiatric rehabilitation, special education, medical model, person-centered planning, trauma-informed care, strength-based treatment, and others.

How does Safety-Care support/help individuals who have experienced psychological or sexual trauma?
  • Safety-Care focuses on encouraging specialists to understand the effect that past trauma may have on current behavior, within the context of a “whole person” understanding of the individual. Safety-Care’s curriculum teaches trainers to identify and help manage triggering events, while also identifying patterns of precursor behaviors (“signals”) in order to solve problems as early and effectively as possible.

  • To learn more about Safety-Care’s approach to trauma,  Click here

What behaviors & conditions is Safety-Care designed for?

Conditions (including but not limited to)- Sexual aggression- Conduct disorder

  • Schizophrenia
  • Intellectual disability
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
  • Borderline personality disorder
  • Learning disabilities
  • Asperger’s syndrome
  • Traumatic brain injury
  • Communication deficits
  • And more

Challenging Behaviors (including but not limited to)- Physical aggression

  • Self-injury
  • Verbal aggression
  • Uncooperativeness
  • Hyperactivity
  • Elopement
  • Tantrums
  • Intimidation
  • Use of weapons
  • Bullying
  • Property destruction
  • Fighting
  • And more

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