Breakaway Training

Introduction to Breakaway

In any profession that involves physical contact with others, there is a risk of violence or aggression. Whether you work in healthcare, education, or security, it is important to have the skills and knowledge to protect yourself and others from harm. This is where breakaway training comes in. Breakaway training is a form of personal safety training that teaches individuals how to disengage from physical confrontations and prevent harm to themselves and others.

What is Breakaway Training?

Breakaway training is a set of techniques and strategies designed to help individuals safely and effectively disengage from physical confrontations. The training covers a range of skills, including non-violent communication, de-escalation techniques, and physical interventions. The goal of breakaway training is to provide individuals with the skills and knowledge they need to prevent harm to themselves and others, while minimizing the risk of injury.

Benefits of Breakaway Training

There are many benefits to breakaway training. For starters, it provides individuals with the skills and confidence they need to handle potentially violent situations. This can help reduce stress and anxiety, which can lead to better decision-making and a safer workplace. Additionally, breakaway training can help improve communication skills, which are essential in any profession that involves working with others. By learning how to effectively communicate and de-escalate situations, individuals can help prevent confrontations from escalating and potentially becoming violent.

Another benefit of breakaway training is that it can help reduce the risk of injury. By learning how to safely disengage from physical confrontations, individuals can minimize the risk of harm to themselves and others. This is particularly important in professions that involve working with vulnerable populations, such as healthcare workers or teachers. By having the skills and knowledge to safely handle potentially violent situations, individuals can provide better care and support to those in need.

Essential

Breakaway training is an essential form of personal safety training that provides individuals with the skills and knowledge they need to prevent harm to themselves and others. By learning how to effectively communicate, de-escalate situations, and safely disengage from physical confrontations, individuals can minimize the risk of injury and provide better care and support to those in need. If you work in a profession that involves physical contact with others, consider investing in breakaway training to keep yourself and others safe.

Staff will learn:

•  Health & Safety principles for managing violence in the workplace (Duty of Care)
•  Principles of resolving conflict using non-physical means were possible prior to needing breakaway.
•  Managing proximity using body-language ‘barrier signals’ for protection and breakaway
•  Escape route selection and movement in confined spaces (bedrooms, toilets, corridors, lifts etc.)
•  Legal rules on the use of reasonable force in self-defence or breakaway situations
•  The risks inherent in breakaway and self-defence scenarios and how to reduce or avoid them.
•  Practical ways – including a small number of physical skills which can be broadly-applied – for staff to protect and safeguard themselves and disengage from the most common assaults prevalent in care services.

Staff will be able to do physical skills as follows:

• Managing Proximity while approaching unpredictable persons
• Managing Proximity moving away from danger
• Understanding ‘Instinctive Protection’ when suddenly assaulted
• Connecting ‘Instinctive Protection’ to sudden assault stimulus
• Building ‘Frames’ which naturally protect the body
• Strengthening the Frames
• Maintaining balance during movement
• Protecting our consciousness as a priority
• Survival and Breakaway versus Hair Grab or Hair Pull
• Survival and Breakaway versus Limb Grabs
• Survival and Breakaway versus Biting, Pinching, Scratching
• Survival and Breakaway versus being punched, hit or slapped in the head
• Survival and Breakaway versus throat grabs
• Escape tactics for disengaging (Breakaway) from the assailant

PHYSICAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT:

Basic Self-Protection Tactics

☐ Understanding Instinctive Protection

☐ Being Alert to the Threat of Physical Assault or Distressed Behaviour

☐ Understand the natural ‘Frames of the body' for defence and protection

☐ Strengthening Natural Frames to withstand Pressure and Movement

☐ Maintaining Balance under Pressure and Movement

☐ Mitigate and Reduce the damage caused by any physical assault

Survival from Common Attacks

☐  Survival and Breakaway versus impacts to the face or head

☐  Survival and Breakaway versus body grabs

☐  Survival and Breakaway versus clothing/limb grabs

☐  Survival and Breakaway versus throat grab

☐  Survival and Breakaway versus hair grab

☐  Survival and Breakaway versus the rear choke-hold

Healthcare Workers

Breakaway training is particularly important in healthcare settings because of the unique environment in which healthcare workers operate. Healthcare workers often work with patients who are under significant stress or experiencing emotional distress, which can increase the risk of violent or aggressive behavior. Additionally, healthcare workers often work in confined spaces, such as hospital rooms or examination rooms, which can make it difficult to disengage from physical confrontations.

Furthermore, healthcare workers are often required to provide care to patients who are physically or mentally impaired, which can increase the risk of injury to both the patient and the healthcare worker. Breakaway training can help healthcare workers learn how to safely and effectively disengage from physical confrontations, while also minimizing the risk of injury to themselves and their patients.
Learn more here.

City Enforcement Teams
Enforcement teams such as community safety wardens and environmental health and parking wardens have breakaway training because they are often required to work in situations where there is a risk of violence or aggression. Breakaway training provides them with the skills and knowledge they need to protect themselves and others from harm, while minimizing the risk of injury. Additionally, breakaway training can help improve communication skills, which are essential in any profession that involves working with others. By learning how to effectively communicate and de-escalate situations, enforcement teams can help prevent confrontations from escalating and potentially becoming violent.
Learn more here.

Community-based Lone Workers
Community-based lone workers need a more advanced form of breakaway training because of the unique risks they face when working alone and remotely. In the event of a violent confrontation, lone workers may not have access to immediate help or backup, and may be at greater risk of harm than workers who are in a team or in a more public setting. Therefore, breakaway training for lone workers should include not only physical self-defense techniques, but also strategies for de-escalation and communication in order to prevent confrontations from escalating into violence. Additionally, lone workers may require specialized training in risk assessment and situational awareness in order to anticipate and avoid potentially dangerous situations. Overall, the advanced form of breakaway training for lone workers should address the unique challenges of working alone in a remote setting and emphasize the importance of safety and self-protection.

Learn more here.

Law Enforcement Officers

Law enforcement officers, including police, border agency, and custody staff, require advanced breakaway and self-protection training due to the high risk of violence and aggression they face in their work. These professionals often work in situations where they may be required to physically intervene to prevent harm to themselves or others. Without proper training, they may be at risk of injury or harm, which can have serious consequences for both themselves and the individuals they are responsible for.

Advanced breakaway and self-protection training for law enforcement officers should include not only physical self-defense techniques, but also strategies for de-escalation and communication in order to prevent confrontations from escalating into violence. Additionally, law enforcement officers may require specialized training in risk assessment and situational awareness in order to anticipate and avoid potentially dangerous situations. Overall, the advanced form of breakaway and self-protection training for law enforcement officers should address the unique challenges of their work and emphasize the importance of safety and self-protection.

Learn more here.

Breakaway techniques were originally designed to enable staff to disengage from situations whereby they were being held or grabbed in an aggressive manner and were very context specific ie if you were held by the wrist you resort to technique A, if you were being strangled from the front then you would use technique B, and so on and so forth. 

The main difficulty associated with this type of approach, is that it is very much one dimensional and fails to consider the psychodynamic nature of violent assaults.

Violent assault does not occur in a vacuum and many factors will invariably influence the outcome for both the perpetrator and victim of violence, which is why modern training programmes should place more emphasis upon the psychological and emotional preparation that is required in order to deal with these types of encounters. What is the point of training clinical staff in any personal protection skill if they are unable to manage their own fear response in the first instance?

Although some training providers have made stirling efforts to reduce the number of techniques taught to its staff, the skills still often remain 'complex' in nature.  Although Dickens et al (2009) states that more research is needed to find out what types of training are best recalled, it is useful to note that the authors propose that techniques closely resembling instinctual responses may be better remembered. 

All kinds of "practical skills" training in how to release / extricate from common types of grips, grabs and strangle holds along with techniques for use in the event of an attack have come to be known generally as "Breakaway".

Following an integrated breakaway and de-escalation skills training programme which took place at St Thomas' Psychiatric Hospital in Ontario, Canada in 1976, the number of violent incidents and of patient and staff injuries in the year fell by 9%, 12%, and 10% respectively compared to the previous year. The number of staff man-hours lost due to assault-related injuries also dropped by 31%.

A similar training programme in Denver, Colorado in 1980 (Gertz) contributed to a 32% decrease in violent incidents in the following year (although the possible effect of other factors is not discussed).

Infantino & Musingo (1985) also reported dramatic results in their comparison of assault and injury rates in staff who had and who had not received training in aggression control techniques. Out of 31 staff who received training in verbal interventions, 'self-defence' and 'takedowns', only one was assaulted in the 9-24 month follow-up period, compared to 24 staff assaulted among the 65 who had not received training. Of these assaulted staff, 19 received injuries (the severity of which is unspecified). These results cannot be explained by differences in locations where trained and non-trained staff worked, because trainees and non-trainees worked together on the same shifts in the same units. (Although however, the reduction in assault frequency in the trainees may in part be attributed to increased confidence following the training.)

Employers that don't provide at risk workers with training in Breakaway Skills may find it hard to justify! The fact that so many organisations are now providing Breakaway Skills training to employees (plus the research that backs it) makes it difficult for other employers to justify not providing the same to their staff - especially if they are facing the same kinds / level of risk.