It is training that has made Caesars Windsor a safer place to work and play, and now it is making the Brentwood Recovery Home a safer place to recover from addictions.
About 55 full and part-time staff at Brentwood received non-violent intervention training this week from the operations manager at Caesars, Curtis Holden.
"A lot of it is very common sense," said Brentwood Executive Director, Mark Lennox. "It's spotting anxiety levels in people and then responding appropriately so that you're not escalating the actual situation."
In an environment where people are exposed to alcohol and sometimes high-stakes gambling, the training is intuitive, but Lennox insists the same strategies to de-escalate emotional situations works in a residential treatment program too.
"Just the fact of coming in, facing your addiction can bring on great amounts of anxiety," he said. "As the substances wear off, again, things can manifest, and the anxiety levels can increase exponentially and very quickly."
Brentwood staff do carry whistles to alert others if they find themselves in an unsafe situation, and Lennox cannot remember the last time someone used it. However, he admitted if an incident escalates, someone could get hurt.
"That's the whole purpose of this training, is that everybody goes home safe," he said.
He believes similar training would be valuable for healthcare workers and outreach workers.
The training would not have been possible without an offer from Caesars Communications Manager, Jhoan Baluyot. Caesars Windsor Cares footed the $4,000 cost to host four training sessions for Brentwood staff.
"We would have done the training, but it certainly wouldn't have been this year," said Lennox. "With help like this, it means its money we don't have to spend the money on training; we can spend it on programs."
