The Mandt System®

About This Program

Target Population: Child welfare organizations and other human service programs concerned with the physical, psychological, and emotional safety of service recipients and service users

Program Overview

The Mandt System® is a relationally based program that uses a continuous learning and development approach to prevent, de-escalate, and if necessary, intervene in behavioral interactions that could become aggressive. The context of all behavior is relational. In human service settings, services are provided and received in the context of staff-to-staff relationships. When these relationships are characterized by words such as dignity, respect, trust, fairness, and integrity, the children, adolescents and adults will feel safer and their behavior will in turn reflect that safety. When service recipients can say that "In this place, and with these people, I feel safe™" they will hopefully be able to heal from the traumatic experiences many children and adolescents in service settings have experienced. The staff-to-staff and the staff-to-service-recipient relationships form the basis upon which children and adolescents will learn how to build and maintain healthy relationships. Children and adolescents will tend do what the staff do, not what they say to do, when relating to each other. The Mandt System® also believes that training is more effectively adopted by an organization if the leadership is informed and encouraged to support it. The Mandt System® provides a Letter to Administrators which highlights the importance of leadership and illustrates the key steps leaders can take to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint.

Family therapists have said that to be really good parents, adults must be really good partners. Children feel safe when their parents feel safe with each other. The Mandt System® has a version of the nonphysical aspects of the program specifically written for families. This empowers the certified trainers to not only teach the staff, but the families of children and adolescents as well, the skills needed to maintain the safety of all people. The Mandt System® also meets the '˜Character Counts'™ provisions in educational settings, and has been taught to students as young as 9 years old.

Program Goals

The goals of The Mandt System® are:

  • Build healthy workplace relationships between the staff of the organization to create a culture of safety.
  • Build healthy relationships between the staff and the service recipients and their families to build upon the culture of safety.
  • Increase the physical, psychological, and emotional safety of all people.
  • Prevent crises from occurring by informing staff of proactive strategies and actions.

Logic Model

The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for The Mandt System®.

Essential Components

The essential components of The Mandt System® include:

  • Two Relational Chapters that are required to be taught prior to teaching any other chapters:
    • Chapter 1, Primary Prevention: Building and Maintaining Healthy Relationships, is designed to teach what the components of healthy relationships are and how they can be built and maintained through healthy communication. R.A.D.A.R. model is presented to maintain situational awareness. Skills covered and assessed include:
      • Verbal Skills
      • Paralanguage Skills
      • Nonverbal Skills
      • I-Statement Skills
      • Perception Checking Skills
    • Chapter 2, De-escalation Skills: Self-regulation & Co-regulation is designed to teach how to better manage ourselves before we begin to work with others. The Mandt System Crisis Cycle and debriefing are covered. Skills covered and assessed include:
      • Self-Regulation Skills:
        • Affirm feelings and choosing behavior
        • Regulated breathing
        • Body scan
        • Sensory grounding
      • Co-regulation Skills:
        • Relaxed safe presence
        • Stimulus management
        • Affirm feelings in others
        • Bottom-up options
        • Cueing safer behavior
        • Listening
    • Two Technical Chapters are designed to provide specific physical skills to provide safety for caregivers and people to whom they provide care:
      • Note: The skills are based on principles and applied in a way that treats all people with dignity and respect while also avoiding prohibited practices that have a higher risk of harm. The skills are arranged in a graded and gradual hierarchy of interventions. Each of the physical skills has an ergonomic assessment that describes how the skills provide safety for the persons performing the skills and the persons on whom the skills are being performed.
      • Chapter 3, Technical Self-Protection Skills, is designed to provide the training for organizations who may need to use physical skills for self-protection, but restrictive holding skills may not be necessary. Skills covered and assessed include:
        • Stances
        • Movement
        • Being Pushed/Pulled
        • Avoidance & Redirection
        • Covering
        • Releases – Wrist, Clothing, Finger, Bites, Hair Pull, and Strangulation Chokes
      • Chapter 4, Technical Holding Skills, is designed to provide the training for organizations that need more than just self-protection skills. This component includes holding techniques that may be used to assist a person who is cooperative but struggling with balance. Also included are restrictive holds that may be needed to provide safety for team members and individuals receiving services. Restrictive holds should only be used for the purpose of protection. Skills covered and assessed include:
        • Self-injurious Bite Release
        • Walking with and Accompanying
        • Escort
        • One and Two Arm Holds
        • Side Body Hold
        • Three-Person Assist to Chair
      • These skills are grouped into possible tracks in which staff can be certified. Tracks include:
        • Standard Track (all skills)
        • Solo Track
        • Elementary Education Track
        • Secondary Education Track
        • Observer/Monitor Track
    • Two Conceptual Chapters are designed to provide information in specific areas that increase the emotional, psychological, and physical safety of all people:
      • Trauma-Informed Services provides a subclinical foundation empowering people to be aware of the neurobiological effects of abuse and neglect, and how to respond in ways that minimize the potential for retraumatization. Information from the Child Trauma Academy is incorporated with the permission of the author, Bruce Perry MD, PhD
      • Positive Behavior Interventions and Support provides an overview of what positive behavior interventions and support is and how to implement behavior change strategies in noncoercive ways.

Program Delivery

Recommended Intensity:

This program is not a person specific intervention, but a full system approach that targets the entire staff and is incorporated into usual agency practice.

Recommended Duration:

The program contains strategies that are incorporated into usual practice. Skills learned in training can be used as needed.

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

  • Community Daily Living Setting
  • Foster / Kinship Care
  • Hospital
  • Outpatient Clinic
  • Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
  • Group or Residential Care
  • Justice Setting (Juvenile Detention, Jail, Prison, Courtroom, etc.)
  • School Setting (Including: Day Care, Day Treatment Programs, etc.)
  • Shelter (Domestic Violence, Homeless, etc.)

Homework

This program does not include a homework component.

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

  • Staff needs to be trained in the techniques.
  • Techniques can be performed anywhere, no additional room requirements, or resources are needed.

Manuals and Training

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

The minimum qualifications are set by the organization's program and procedures.

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

Manual details:

  • The Mandt System (2025). The Mandt System Instructor Manual 3.0. Author.

All certified trainers are provided an Instructor’s Manual, which is used during the training program. Additional resources are available to instructors via mandtsystem.com. Instructors can login to their account to access presentations, manuals, activities, and resources to prepare for training.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact:
Training Type/Location:

The program is taught using a train-the-trainer model. Training can be provided on-site or regionally. A minimum of 12 trainers is required to provide the train-the-trainer program. Training availability or requests for additional information can be found at www.mandtsystem.com.

Number of days/hours:

For a general staff member to learn to train the techniques of The Mandt System®, two days is required for the Relational Certification and an additional two days for the Technical Certification. The hours for trainer certification are 8 am to 5 pm with lunch and breaks:

  • Relational (nonphysical) – 2 days
  • Relational and Technical (includes physical techniques) – 4 days
  • Trainer certification in the Conceptual modules is completed online after the Relational or Relational and Technical certification is achieved.
  • The Mandt System® has a modular design to provide flexibility to organizations in their implementation of the program. Once certified, the time for a trainer to certify their staff is usually 8 hours for the Relational and an additional 8 hours for the Technical in a traditional face-to-face model. Organizations using the training program have the option of implementing the course in a blended learning version to reduce the necessary classroom time.

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

There are currently no published, peer-reviewed research studies on outcomes with the appropriate target population for the topic area(s) in which The Mandt System® has been reviewed.

Additional References

Huckshorn, K. A., Parhami, I., Trimzi, I., Holloway, S. W., Diamond, M., & Gallucci, G. (2013). Changing cultures of state psychiatric hospitals to reduce client seclusions and restraints. Poster Presentation. American Psychiatric Association. Available at this link.

Kleinschrodt, A. M. (2010). Program recommendations to fulfill restrictive procedures training requirements for school districts [Master’s capstone project, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1486&context=etds

Wale, Joyce B., Belkin, G. S. & Moon, R. (2011). Reducing the use of seclusion and restraint in psychiatric emergency and adult inpatient services—improving patient-centered care. The Permanente Journal, 15(2), 57–62. https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/10-159

Contact Information

Dale L. Shannon, PhD (He/Him)
Title: Director of Governance/National Faculty Member
Agency/Affiliation: The Mandt System
Website: www.mandtsystem.com
Email:
Phone: (800) 810-0755

Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed by CEBC: November 2024

Date Program Content Last Reviewed by Program Staff: March 2025

Date Program Originally Loaded onto CEBC: January 2011