SIVA

the siva program

Working with special needs individuals in an inpatient, residential care, or foster home environment, caregivers will encounter a wide array of situations that require different types of interaction. The SIVA WISE™ process is uniquely suited for these environments because it offers a sense of balance that maximizes individual and caregiver well-being at all times. Every aspect of the SIVA program is designed to provide clear, constructive support that maintains this balance in crisis and non-crisis situations.

Proactive Safety Management Evaluation

To safely manage behaviour, a safety evaluation must first be conducted to understand the behaviour and establish a baseline of risk and a guideline for care. SIVA provides caregivers with a comprehensive risk inventory to catalog the individual's previous unsafe behaviours and a quick-reference safety management guide that indicates which management methods are most efficacious in both general and acute situations.

With these tools, caregivers are prepared to begin creating a safe environment with the individual upon their placement.

Caregiver/Individual Relationship and Safety Plan

Through the WISE™ process, caregivers and individuals with special needs create a collaborative safety plan using a common language of broad-based metaphors which captures varying states of being safe and unsafe. These broad-based metaphors:

• Utilize both verbal and visual means to convey universal positive/negative imagery
• Help avoid miscommunications when identifying safe and unsafe states
• Provide an essential point of reference for the individual during crisis situations through consistent, positive reinforcement in non-crisis times

Individuals are encouraged to take an active role and co-create their safety plans with caregivers, which helps to build intrinsic value in the plan from the individual's perspective. Caregiver input and direction will be guided by the individual's participation, communication and level of cognitive functioning, and caregivers will also be shown how to draw upon the risk inventory and safety management guide to further encourage the individual's participation.

Communication

Communication is constantly validated by the trusted relationship as caregivers guide individuals through goal-directed, decision-making processes as part of the safety plan. Caregivers will learn how to model healthy communication-how to therapeutically deflect and reflect abusive statements rather than retaining and reacting to them. The SIVA WISE™ process will also demonstrate how to de-escalate situations with sensitivity to individuals' chaotic emotions, communication style, and restricted cognitive processing.

The framework and common language of the collaborative safety plan reduces the risk of untimely and arbitrary interventions and grounds the caregiver and the individual in a structure that is familiar and consistent. The WISE™ process also helps avoid many of the communication pitfalls that inexperienced caregivers often encounter.

Emergency Safety Intervention

When an individual's behaviour presents an imminent risk of harm to self or others, emergency safety interventions may be applied. The goals of these tactics are to restore safety and balance to both the individual and the environment so that pro-social personal growth can resume. When emergency safety interventions are applied, the individual is rendered safe and secure in the least restrictive manner possible.

SIVA will train caregivers to differentiate between aggressive behaviour and violent behaviour, and how to determine the most effective approach to restoring safety. We will also teach caregivers how to avoid the adverse and potentially life-threatening effects of positional and restraint asphyxia, especially for individuals with compromised cardiovascular or central nervous systems.

Post-Intervention

In some cases, the follow-up to an unsafe incident can have as much impact on the well-being of both the individual and the caregiver as the incident itself. Post-intervention assessment and debriefing are vital to restoring safety, maintaining trust, and creating a healthy experience from which individuals and caregivers can grow.

Following an unsafe incident, a brief assessment of the safety needs of those directly and indirectly involved and a cursory assessment of the physical environment will provide caregivers with the initial information to manage the incident. SIVA will train caregivers:

• How to determine the appropriate timing for debriefing
• Who should participate
• Why advocates and mediators are necessary
• When key events need to occur to restore trust and safety

Caregiver Self-Care

Safety and trust can only be maintained by healthy caregivers. Being a caregiver can be incredibly rewarding, but it is also a position where people are vulnerable to overextending themselves emotionally and physically, which can lead to low tolerance for distress, depression, and an erosion of compassion for others. "Compassion fatigue" is a critical factor in determining whether a caregiver is capable of forming and maintaining the type of relationship necessary to ensure trust and safety with a special needs individual.

SIVA will train caregivers and supervisors of caregivers how to identify and manage compassion fatigue through self-introspection and caregiver support systems.