TIDES at CAMH
TIDES helps keep people safe
To help keep people safe during a crisis, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) created a training program called Trauma-Informed De-Escalation Education for Safety and Self-Protection (TIDESTM). It teaches people how to work together in situations where someone is becoming anxious, agitated or violent, which are commonly known as psychiatric and behavioural emergencies (other terms include “challenging situations,” “crises” and “rapidly changing situations”).
TIDES aims to help people prevent these situations and to respond safely when they happen. All CAMH staff receive TIDES training, including staff in non-clinical settings. The program focuses on being trauma-informed in the ways people communicate and respond, which involves a wide range of behaviours and practices.
When staff are trauma-informed, it means they acknowledge and behave as if they don’t know everything that another person has experienced, and that people might have had experiences that affect their mental and physical health. It is a way of working with people that has far-reaching effects, and it can touch on every aspect of health services from an organization-wide level to the daily activities of someone receiving care. Learn more about trauma-informed practice by watching the webinar An introduction to trauma-informed practice.
What the HSO and participants say
TIDES is a Health Standards Organization (HSO) leading practice
In 2023, TIDES received a “leading practice” award from the Health Standards Organization (HSO), an internationally recognized not-for-profit organization that works with experts and people with lived experience to develop standards and ways for assessing and improving health care.
From CAMH participants in TIDES training
After completing TIDES training, a vast majority of CAMH staff found it helpful (Khan et al., 2023):
- It improved their knowledge (reported by 98% of participants).
- It strengthened their intention to change practice (98%).
- It increased their confidence (92%).
- They were satisfied with the training (89%).
Here are comments from two participants:
- “It has filled a gap in my knowledge of safety for myself and safety of clients. I will be much more confident in being trauma-aware [during] physical interventions.”
- “It will help me enforce safe de-escalation practices using self-defense techniques and methods to verbally de-escalate.”
* TIDES is a trademark and official mark of CAMH; used under licence.
