MAPA® center in Finland at Laurea
Safe Operating Practices – MAPA® trainings strengthen staff’s ability to anticipate and manage challenging and threatening client situations safely and professionally – before they escalate into physical violent incidents.
What is MAPA®?
MAPA® (Management of Actual or Potential Aggression) is a comprehensive approach in which safety is built on anticipation, professional interaction and shared operating practices within the work community. The approach starts from how challenging and threatening situations can be identified, prevented and met humanely at an early stage – before situations escalate into physical, violent incidents.
Who is the training for?
Safe Operating Practices MAPA® trainings are suitable for organizations and professionals who encounter people in their work whose behaviour may be challenging or threatening – even violent.
Typical operating environments include:
- customer service environments
- social and healthcare services
- early childhood education and teaching
- rehabilitation and social services
- services for people requiring special support
What are the benefits of the training?
Safe Operating Practices MAPA® trainings help build a proactive, safe and consistent operating culture in which your staff know how to act safely and professionally in demanding situations.
The trainings develop staff’s ability to:
- identify behavioural escalation early
- choose appropriate interaction and action methods for the situation
- act safely even in physical threat situations
- utilise a trauma-informed approach
The trainings are practical and based on participatory learning and real-life organizational situations.
MAPA training centre at Laurea
MAPA® is an international training program, continuously developed on the basis of research and practice. MAPA® is based on the training requirements certified by the Restraint Reduction Network, which ensure the safety of physical methods, the protection of fundamental rights, human dignity and the quality of the training.
Laurea University of Applied Sciences has served since 2015 as the only MAPA® Approved Training Centre (ATC) in Finland approved by the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI). The Finland MAPA® Centre operates at Laurea’s Tikkurila campus, but activities are directed across the whole of Finland.
As the Finland MAPA® Centre, Laurea is responsible for the quality, consistency and certification of trainings in Finland. Our task is to monitor and develop
- Teaching materials
- the quality of Safe Operating Practices MAPA® trainings
- evaluation of the trainings’ effectiveness
Frequently asked questions
Which sectors is the training suitable for?
The Safe Operating Practices MAPA® training is suitable for all organizations working with people.
The training is always tailored to the organization’s real needs. If challenging behaviour is mainly verbal, the training emphasises interaction and calming situations. If the work encounters aggression or violence in various forms, the training also covers safe, ethical and last-resort physical restraint skills.
The application area of Safe Operating Practices MAPA® trainings is broad; courses are organised, for example, in special education, child psychiatry and child protection, elderly services and somatic nursing.
What are the principles of MAPA® trainings?
The training is based on:
- distinguish between challenging behaviour and risk behaviour
- help understand the impact of possible traumatic experiences on behaviour
- emphasise that physical restraint is always the last resort in threatening situations
How do MAPA® trainings differ from other aggression management trainings?
What sets the Safe Operating Practices MAPA® training apart from others is its comprehensive and researched approach.
The training is delivered with illustrated workbooks that participants keep. Materials are based on extensive source material and are updated regularly.
Physical methods are evaluated by independent international researchers, and this risk assessment is shared with participants.
The methods always take into account safety, legal perspectives and professional responsibility.
How do the benefits of the training appear in the work community?
After the training, the work community’s operation is based on clearer planning and a shared operating model.
Participants learn
- to identify risks,
- to anticipate challenging situations,
- to act in them safely, in a controlled manner and collaboratively
When a safe operating method in a threatening situation is not just one employee’s skill, trained employees can support each other. By anticipating and correctly identifying the level of risk in a conflict situation, staff confidence increases, improving interactions between staff and clients and deepening cooperative relationships.
Properly managing violent and threatening situations reduces staff workload and increases the sense of occupational safety and job satisfaction.
How can I participate in the training?
We organise open Safe Operating Practices MAPA® basic and instructor trainings at Laurea. Open trainings can be found in the Laurea Smart online store.
In addition, you can order training for your organization by requesting a quote from us or our partners.
How can I participate in the instructor training?
We organise open instructor trainings at Laurea. Open trainings can be found in the Laurea Smart online store.
We recommend that you first attend the MAPA® basic training, as it facilitates grasping the content of the instructor training and supports development into an instructor.
How widely has MAPA® training been implemented?
Development work began in England over 40 years ago and the licence is owned by the international CPI (Crisis Prevention Institute Inc.). CPI continues to actively develop the training.
Globally, the training has impacted over 300 million people.
In Finland, certified instructor trainings began organised by Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Hyvinkää in 2015, after which the method spread more widely across Finland.
Currently, about 12,000 people are trained annually according to MAPA® principles.
All nurses graduating from Laurea have attended MAPA® training as part of their degree studies, and students studying to become bachelor of social services can also participate in the training.
Are you interested in Safe Operating Practices MAPA® training?
We are happy to help find the training package that best suits your organization.
Contact us
-
Anna Vaara
Country Manager
anna.vaara@laurea.fi
+358 50 438 0230
-
Minttu Riutsola
Service Coordinator
minttu.riutsola@laurea.fi
+358 50 314 0270
Safe Operating Practices MAPA® training is recommended by
95%
of training participants
Trained annually
approx. 12,000
Trained internal instructors
469