Success Story: Camp Kiah, Victoria
How Team Teach training has provided staff with a flexible framework for effective behaviour support.
About Camp Kiah
Camp Kiah offers therapeutic-based camps and respite for children and young people aged between 4-17 years old.
Camps vary in duration and employ a range of play-based, trauma-informed, and attachment-focused approaches to support children and young people who may struggle with emotional regulation and behaviour.
Benefits of choosing Team Teach
Before Team Teach, staff at Camp Kiah had used a range of behaviour support training providers, but found that the prescribed approaches were not a good fit for the needs of their service.
As Olly explains, “The content offered by those providers was too rigid and wasn’t relatable for our organisation. The scenarios were not based in real life, so staff found it tricky to relate the learning to what the children and young people at Camp Kiah need in terms of support.”
As a result, they chose Team Teach as it provided a flexible framework that staff could apply to a range of situations, to enhance confidence, maximise safety, and reduce risk for all.
The challenge:
To develop and embed a positive approach to behaviour support that is rooted in real-life experiences and flexible to meet the needs of staff, children, and young people.
Background
Camp Kiah had previously used a range of behaviour support training providers, but found that the content did not relate to real-life scenarios experienced by camp staff.
Challenges
Camp Kiah supports children and young people with a range of emotional and behavioural needs, including high-risk behaviours.
Staff may not have all the information about an individual in advance and as such, they needed a flexible approach to behaviour support that could be adapted to meet individual need.
The camp is situated in a remote location so assembling all staff for training can be challenging due to the geography of the location.
Aims
The aim was to create a relational, values-based approach to behaviour support that was rooted in trauma-informed thinking, and that could be adapted to meet the needs of the children and young people at Camp Kiah.
Solution
Leaders at Camp Kiah made the strategic decision to give all staff Team Teach training and make it an integral part of their staff induction process.
This has resulted in a consistent, shared approach to behaviour support across staff teams.
Having two certified on-site Team Teach trainers enables the delivery of pre- and post-camp debriefs, giving staff regular opportunities to refresh specific areas of training and share their professional practice with others.
Using the Team Teach values-based, relational approach, staff are encouraged to look beyond the behaviour they see to consider what it may be communicating.
The results:
Embedding Team Teach principles, and training all staff across the organisation has led to a reduction in crisis incidents and has significantly improved staff confidence.
As Olly explains, “The content of Team Teach training is rooted in real-world scenarios and provides us with a flexible, practical framework around behaviour support. This enables us to respond effectively in a range of different situations.”
There have been a number of benefits to Team Teach training at Camp Kiah:
- Reduction in reported crisis incidents
- Improved staff confidence, competence and communication
- Better understanding of functions of behaviour
- Shared approaches and language across staff teams
Next Steps
Leaders at Camp Kiah continue to ensure that Team Teach training is an integral part of staff professional development.
They are further developing systematic data collection processes, to evaluate the impact of training and create effective individualised records.
In addition, staff at Camp Kiah are aiming to work more closely with other agencies involved with children and young people, to create a coherent and holistic picture of behaviour support.
