Guarding the Gates: Calming, Control and De-escalation of Mentally Ill, Emotionally Disturbed and Aggressive Individuals

Individuals suffering from psychiatric or substance use disorders sometimes display any one of a number of frightening behaviors: verbal outbursts, physical threats and even violence. Security guards must frequently deal with such individuals in locations as varied as hospital emergency rooms, shopping malls, places of business and isolated warehouses in the middle of the night. In this comprehensive guidebook, Ellis Amdur and William Cooper offer security guards a comprehensive set of strategies to keep themselves, those they are protecting and the general public safe, while functioning at the highest level of professionalism. The first sections of this book define the role of the security guard in the de-escalation of emotionally-disturbed individuals, whatever the cause of their upset. This includes development of a safety mindset, as well as tactical planning. In the second major section, they focus on us: how to hone our intuition and how we can develop a state of integrity and powerful calm, the ideal state of mind to function in crisis situations. They then move on to the heart of the book discussing specific behaviors ranging from confusion and obsessive concerns to psychosis, mania and acute disorganization. In one very important chapter, they discuss interactions with opportunistic and manipulative individuals, people who present a danger to the psychological and physical well-being of anyone whom they come in contact. They then discuss how to de-escalate aggressive and chaotic individuals once a crisis begins. Amdur and Cooper elucidate the various motivations that drive aggression and further delineate the different types of aggression that result. De-escalation tactics are specific - one learns how to immediately recognize what mode of aggression the person is displaying, and then, one can quickly and effectively implement the de-escalation tactics that are best suited to deal with the aggression one is facing.