Welcome to PETMA™ - Transformative Behaviour Support
PETMA™ (Professional Ethical Therapeutic Mindful Approach) stands as an guaranteed Irish, human rights-based behaviour support model, meticulously crafted to adhere to HIQA's regulations for supporting service users who may encounter verbal or physical distress. PETMA™ adopts a proactive stance, focusing on averting service users' distress through rigorous modules designed to foster an understanding of the challenges inherent in living with disabilities and their impact on comprehension and communication abilities.
Drawing upon positive behaviour support principles and rooted in a psychodynamic framework, PETMA™ undergoes a comprehensive Expert Training Needs Analysis (ETNA) with each new commissioning organisation. This process ensures that the programme is custom fit to the unique requirements of each service, fostering a collaborative partnership.
Our model offers a suite of dynamic, transformative behaviour-changing modules, complemented by practical tools to build frontline staff’s capacity and resilience in supporting service users when they become distressed. Central to PETMA™ training is an exploration of stressors, rapport building, preventative strategies, triggers, functions, and factors that sustain distress, alongside instruction in de-escalation techniques such as empathy, understanding, and collaboration. This comprehensive approach empowers staff to cultivate meaningful relationships, guiding service users toward a state of calmness.
Next available dates are as follows
Online Modules
- Introduction and Registration - July 8th 10am – 12pm
- Workshop 1– 20th Aug 5pm
- Workshop 2- 2nd Sept 5pm
- Workshop 3- 24th Sept – 5pm
Direct Taught Face to Face Dates 9am – 5pm – Venue to be confirmed but Leixlip/Maynooth area.
- September 26th
- September 27th
- September 30th
- October 1st
- October 15th
For more information - click here
Our Mission
Our mission is to offer thought-provoking and reflective solutions for workforce development to organisations. We aim to assist them in delivering services that are dignified, compassionate, safe, respectful, person-centered, and therapeutic, benefiting both individuals receiving services and frontline practitioners. Our goal is to equip them with the necessary skills to effectively navigate complex situations involving distressful behaviour. We emphasise balanced responses that are professional, ethical, therapeutic, and legal, ensuring the well-being and dignity of all involved.
PETMA™ is designed to enhance the competency of both organisational teams and frontline practitioners in effectively managing distressed behaviour in children or adults. It offers a diverse array of responses, commencing with the establishment of conducive environments, fostering therapeutic bonds, comprehending service users' needs, and cultivating empathy. Through solution-focused methodologies, PETMA™ endeavours to mitigate distress through prevention, prediction, detection, conciliation, recognition, and ensuring safety during escalating situations, alongside building staff’s capacity and resilience when actual or potential verbal or physical distressful behaviour occur.
Irish Behaviour Support Model HIQA Complaint, set against Irish Legislation A Human Rights Based Approach Focus on Reducing Distress. BILD Certified /against Restrain Reduction Network standards. Guaranteed Irish Teaching Model for Health & Social Care Services
eHub Online Training
Our eHub online learning platform provides over a 700 self-paced, multi-media bite size training programmes set against our Competency Professional Development Framework, available here at your Fingertips. This is a training hub of excellence written by a team of experts addressing the attitudes, skills, knowledge and competencies required to work effectively in the disability sector. We have translated HIQA Policy Standards and Regulations into 6 Core Competencies and set each of the training programmes against them.