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Protective Behaviours is a Safety Awareness Programme for children, young people and adults. The programme has a practical, down to earth approach to personal safety and helps to build self-esteem and confidence in our right to feel safe. Protective Behaviours is based on two messages:
Feeling Safe What Protective Behaviours says: We All have the Right to Feel Safe All of the Time" Feeling safe is something that most of us don’t think about, in fact we are more likely to miss it when it’s gone. It is important that we spend some time and recognise that our bodies tell us when we are feeling safe. When we feel safe we are in a state of well being . It’s good to feel this way, in fact it is a basic human right. Feeling safe is very individual, what feels safe to one person may not feel safe to another. Question: What does it feel like to feel safe? Taking Risks There are times when it is exciting or fun to feel a bit scared. This could include when we are doing something for the first time, watching a scary film or going on a fair ground ride. This is something we choose to do, we feel in control and we know when it will end. If we no longer feel safe we can say no. Risk taking is an important part of life and growing up, but we may take risks because others encourage us to rather than because we want to and it is important to know the difference Question: What do you like doing that feels exciting and which may feel a bit scary to do? If you didn’t like it any more what could you do? Early Warning Signs When we are in a potentially unsafe situation, our bodies prepare us for action. As a result we experience physical feelings in different parts of our bodies. These are the first ways that our bodies tell us that we are not feeling safe. Protective Behaviours calls these our "Early Warning Signs". Early warning Signs tell us that we are at tisk and that the risk might be increasing. It may be something that we don’t want to do, if we trust our feelings we can begin to make choices to keep ourselves feeling safe. It may be the signal to ask for help if we can’t solve the problem for ourselves. Question: How does our body tell us when we aren’t feeling safe? We not only get our Early Warning Signs when we are feeling unsafe. We will almost certainly get these feelings when we are about to do something that is new to us or a bit risky. At this time we can check out whether we really want to go through with the risk or not. We may also get these feelings just before we go to the dentist of are going to a new school for example, although this may feel unpleasant we realise that these are feelings that everyone has. You can help your child to recognise the need for these events in our lives and support them to come up with things that could help them to feel safer in the situation, such as visiting the school in advance, taking a friend etc. Networks "There is Nothing so Awful that we can’t Talk with someone about it" We all need a support network. A network is a group of people in our lives who are there for the good time and who are there if we need them, when we are worried or not feeling safe. It is recommended that we have at least four people other than those we live with that we could turn to. This is just as important for children and young people as we can’t always be there and there may be occasions when someone else can offer better help. You can help your child to think about who is on their support network or helping hand. Remember that you ultimately have responsibility for checking out people who are around your child. Question: who could we turn to if we needed help or support? Persistence We need to persist in seeking help, remember we have the right to feel safe. We need to persist until we find someone who listens, understand, believes us and helps us to feel safe again. If the first person we ask doesn’t help we can try someone else. We will know our problem has been solved when we are feeling safe again. Question: What if we ask someone for help and don’t for some reason, what could we do? Personal Emergencies If it is an emergency our children need to know that it is ok to get our attention right away. We need to realise that when children and young people feel really scared it is ok for the to break the rules for example interrupt a conversation, say no, break a secret, tell tales etc. Safe Even if It is important to think about safety situations before they happen, that way we begin to develop safety skills and we have more choices available to us. You can practice this by thinking about what you could do to feel and keep safe in particular situations. It is important to remember that what will work for one person may not work for another person, we need to find a solution that will work for us. Questions: How could you keep safe even if, you had to walk home in the dark? or How could you keep feeling safe even if someone was bullying you? A word about Stranger Danger Obviously we don’t want our children to go off with people they don’t know. They need to know that it’s not a safe idea to go with someone they don’t know without a good reason and letting someone know where they are. However it’s not necessarily a good idea to scare our children about strangers. Statistics show that they are more at risk from someone they know and it may just be that when an emergency does arise the only person who is available to help is a stranger. Based on 'The Right to Feel Safe' booklet by Alan Dawson
For more information and advice about protective behaviours contact: Safetynet Whitehawk Youth Centre, Whitehawk Road, Brighton, BN2 5GD Tel: (01273) 696622 It is useful for people of all ages, but particularly children and young people. Links www.protectivebehaviours.co.uk/ The protective behaviours website provides more detailed information, advice and resources regarding protective behaviours and it's use in the UK. |
