Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging Presents:

Verbal De-Escalation of Aggressive Customers

 Yelling, threatening, swearing and pacing; these are the telltale signs that your customer is so upset that they may try to harm you. Calming aggressive customers and preventing the situation from escalating is something that is within your control. This seminar will present both organizational and individual strategies that can be implemented in social service settings to curtail violent episodes and successfully defuse aggressive customers. The Violence Cycle, when and how to interrupt it, will be discussed. Come prepared to tell your own "war stories" and increase the skills and knowledge you need to keep yourself and others safe at work.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the violence cycle and how to interrupt it.
• Apply strategies that will make you effective in talking down an agitated customer while keeping yourself safe.
• Identify the image you are projecting to the aggressive person and demonstrate how to modify your stance, expression and voice tone to be non-threatening and calming in an escalating situation.

Time: 9:00am – 12:15pm (Registration begins at 8:30am)

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Seniors Can Be Bullies Too

 When you hear the words “senior citizen” does it conjure up images of sweet tempered, silver haired individuals who are determined not to be a burden to others? Not all seniors fit this stereotype. Some are ill-tempered, controlling, irrational and even violent, and they provoke fear in others who must live in close proximity to them. This workshop addresses the issues of seniors who bully their peers. Come to learn why senior bullying occurs, who tends to be the target, how to identify both perpetrators and victims, and how to intervene in situations involving senior bullying.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the common signs and features of senior bullying.
• Describe why senior bullying occurs.
• Recognize victim symptoms that indicate someone is being targeted by a senior bully.
• Demonstrate how to prevent and/or intervene in situations of senior bullying.
• Explain how to address the situation when the bully or the target or both have dementia.
• Practice bullying interventions by addressing case studies of real incidents of senior bullying.

Time: 1:00pm – 4:15pm (Registration begins at 12:30pm)

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Speaker: Louis (Lou) Vincent is the Vice Principal of Rizzo & Associates LLC, a management training and consulting firm established in 1984. He has also served the firm as a trainer and consultant for nearly three decades. Prior to coming to Rizzo & Associates, Lou was employed as a Supervisory Administrator at Boys Village, a residential treatment center for adolescent boys. He holds a certification in Organizational Behavior from Heriot Watt University in Scotland (2002). Lou is a co-author of Health, Mind, Body, Soul (2012) and the author of The Master Negotiator (1999.) He has conducted over 5000 days of training for adult learners since 1991 for government, non-profit and corporate entities in the U.S., Canada, and Jamaica. Lou’s favorite topics to present include leadership, team building, diversity, preventing workplace violence and bullying, interviewing skills, customer driven service, verbal de-escalation and communication enhancement.

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CEU Information: 

• Each program is approved for 3.0 continuing education units for LSWs, LISWs, SWA, Nurses (via reciprocity with the SW board).
• The Ohio Board of Nursing will accept sessions approved for Social Workers for Continuing Nurse Education.
• To comply with the State of Ohio Counselor and Social Worker Board: Late Arrivals will NOT be admitted.

Views and written materials presented during the presentations are those of the individual presenter and do not necessarily represent the official views and/or opinions of the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging.

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