FAQ’s

Any organization or Healthcare Facility that has within its business model or location an Emergency Department or Behavioral Health Department, are required by California Law to provide those employees who work within these environments with adequate and comprehensive education and training to effectively recognize, respond safely, appropriately respond to and systematically attempt to prevent potentially violent situations within these setting. That specific law is California Assembly Bill-508, (AB-508) (1993) introduced by Assembly Member Jackie Speier of California and co-authored by Senator Killea and Senator Watson of California. Since that time, Assembly Bills-1083 (AB-1083), Assembly Bill-30 (AB-30) and recently Senate Bill-1299 (SB-1299) (2016) have passed within the State of California, all focusing on providing a higher level of safety for employees and those that they serve with progressively more education, as well as increasing the number of departments within the entire healthcare industry that should receive de-escalation, prevention and safe protection training being required by each new Bill. (To view these Bills, visit the Resource Center of this website)

In addition, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has also enacted national requirements of the same expectations of Workplace Violence Prevention, so now, whether you are full-time or part-time employed staff, or are simply floating to these and other departments within a healthcare setting, the organization that employs you, is required to provide you with some form of comprehensive training in order to learn, apply and practice these specific skills on an annual basis in order to provide the employees, clients, visitors and anyone within the facility with a safe and therapeutic environment. This is why the organization provides you with this mandatory training, or requires you to already have the training when hiring you for employment in order to be compliant within the organization's requirements, regulatory agencies and State Law. Each facility or organization reserves the right to require a specific Workplace Violence Prevention Program within their workplace. Each State in the U.S. have their own individual State laws that promote and require the same type of training for individuals working with the healthcare and high acuity environments.

The term, AB-508 simply refers to the actual California law (Assembly Bill-508) authored in 1993 that requires healthcare organizations within the State of California that have either an Emergency Department or a Behavioral Health Department to provide or require a recognized Violence Prevention Program for their employees who work within those departments as a result of being exposed to potential violence as a part of their job description. (To view this Bill, visit the Resource Center of this website)

The SB-1299 Training refers to the Senate Bill-1299 (2016) that now requires healthcare organizations within California to have a new safety plan in place with regards to preventing, managing and planning for potential violence in the workplace and to provide some sort of annual Workplace Violence Prevention Training to all employees in all departments who are involved in patient care and contact as a part of their employment. So where previous California laws required employees to be provided with Violence Prevention Training on a "regular basis," which could be interpreted by healthcare facilities to be anything from quarterly, annually, every two years, or every few years, the SB-1299 Law states that all employees need more training on a more consistent basis of annually.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has also enacted national requirements connected to the SB-1299 Law, of the same expectations of Workplace Violence Prevention, so now, whether you are full-time or part-time employed staff, or are simply floating to these and other departments within a healthcare setting, the organization that employs you, is required to provide you with some form of comprehensive training in order to learn, apply and practice these specific skills on an annual basis in order to provide the employees, clients, visitors and anyone within the facility with a safe and therapeutic environment. In addition, all State and Federal regulatory agencies such as CMS and The Joint Commission have now adopted the requirement that were previously un-defined, that now require the SB-1299 law to be recognized and in place by all healthcare organizations.

Before the 2016 California SB-1299 Law, as well as in states besides California, the previous Healthcare Violence Prevention laws were recognized as being required on a "Regular basis" which could be interpreted by healthcare facilities to be anything from quarterly, annually, every two years, or every few years. But now that the SB-1299 Law was enacted, the need for providing effective Workplace Violence Prevention and De-escalation training changed to an "Annual basis" so that employees are able to receive adequate safety training enough for the concepts of de-escalation and knowing what to do when violent individuals enter the workplace are effectively learned and practiced to the point where the response and reactions to these situations are better, safer and more empathetic.

There are several different Violence Prevention Programs throughout the Country and Internationally and our VIP Response Training is one of those programs that companies, schools, prisons, law enforcement, Federal agencies and the healthcare industry use to train their employees on how to better respond, react, prevent and control violent behavior and incidents that they may encounter within their environments. Companies such as CPI, NCI, MOAB, MAB, Pro-ACT, Handle With Care, Secure, all provide organizations, mostly the healthcare industry with Violence Prevention Programs to help de-escalate, manage and control aggressive behavior when working within their workplace, but not all companies are able to deliver what the organizations who contract them to do. Every organization that Phoenix Training Group has worked with will tell you that the VIP Response® Training is everything and more of what they were looking for within a Violence Prevention Program and actually exceeded their expectations.

It's the philosophy of Phoenix Training Group that any aggressive behavior management program has value to those who choose to attend these different classes and there is always something to gain from any information on the complexities of dealing with difficult people and situations. So if you have attended other Violence Prevention programs in the past, or if you will attend other programs in the future, it's wise to absorb as much as possible in learning everything you can about how to properly respond to and manage the behaviors that you may encounter while performing your job. However, VIP Response® Training has forged the best possible elements from 40 years of developing and training the most progressive and customizable program available anywhere.

We accomplish this by using a proven crisis negotiation and de-escalation system, derived from years of developing and redeveloping the successful dynamics of negotiation for anyone faced with unpredictable, suicidal, aggressive or violent behavior exhibited by individuals within the healthcare field, the mainstream workplace and corporate environments, as well as everyday people dealing with difficult people and situations. We'll also can present a special emphasis on intruders entering facilities with weapons and the profiles of why they do what they do and how to recognize any warning signals a head of time that might help to keep you, your staff and all who trust your facility to keep them safe from harm. Whether you have two employees or fifty-thousand, we can accommodate your facility's needs easily, effectively and at a reasonable cost. Where other programs of this kind tend to be a one-size-fits-all curriculum, the VIP Response® Training prides itself on being completely customizable to each and every organization and person who attends the classes. The effectiveness and rate of success generated by the VIP Response® Training is a proven methodology of how established and seasoned crisis negotiation techniques combined with new and improved psychology-based Workplace Violence Prevention education produces the best prevention and de-escalation program around. With the VIP Response® Training, the need for a physical intervention is in most cases, is completely unnecessary using our proven management technology.

Simply find the "TRAINING CALENDAR" tab on the main page and locate a class you wish to attend, then click on the class on that date and you will see all of the information there, including address, where the class is being held and a map to find it. Then follow the instructions to Register from there and pay for the class. If there is no link to pay for the class, then that specific class is closed and not available to attend. Only the classes with links to pay for classes on the pages are open. Once you register and purchase the class you're looking for, you will receive a receipt and please bring that receipt to the class to show the instructor. That's it. See you in class!

There are several reasons why many facilities and organizations have Phoenix Training Group’s experienced Instructors come to the organizations to train their employees instead of training a select group of employees to become trainers for the rest of their employees. The first reason is because there are not enough staff to become trainers, or no staff that are willing to become trainers for the facilities and so they much prefer our instructors to come to the facilities instead of trying to find staff who could try their hands at teaching. Many employees may have the knowledge, but do not have the time or desire to teach demanding classes that range from four to eight hours in length. So, if Phoenix Training Group instructors are within several hundred miles of the facility, our instructors will be happy and available to come to your facility to train your employees. Another reason is that the organization may have the staff to become trainers, but they may not be able to speak in front of groups of other employees, or perhaps their knowledge base is limited within the scope of their jobs, or departments they work within. Phoenix Training Group’s instructors have many years of experience in all departments and disciplines, some measured in decades, and can talk about and address any number of issues that come up or are asked by the employees being trained. We pride ourselves on our instructors having an answer to any question raised. The decades of experience allows the importance of difficult and sometimes dangerous issues to be addressed in the most effective methodology and therefore the retention and successful application for employees is much higher, translating to a much safer environment for staff and those we care for. The third reason is an issue that many organizations encounter and that is when an administration decides to have a select number of employees trained as instructors, many whom can teach effectively, but then find themselves too busy within the scope of their regular job duties to conduct classes or are promoted to other jobs and departments and can no longer teach the classes. In addition, many employees who an organization has trained to become instructors leave the organization for whatever reason and after the company has invested time and money to train their employees, find themselves suddenly and sometimes without warning, with too few or virtually no instructors to train their employees for classes that are required by law and regulatory agencies to provide. This puts a substantial and potentially non-compliant strain on the administration of an organization and places them often in jeopardy of violating that required compliancy. Many times, this is when Phoenix Training Group receives correspondence from an organization experiencing the lack of instructors on their part and have our instructors conduct the classes, or pay for more instructors to be trained for their facilities. Every organization and facility has it’s own multi-dimensional dynamics that they work with among the people they serve and take care of, along with the employees who serve them and so the ability to customize the VIP Response training is especially important. This is why Phoenix Training Group is so far ahead of any other violence prevention program available, in that we provide that specific customization for every organization we work along side, helping them to address very individual needs and demands. So, whether Phoenix Training Group trains all of your employees, or a select number who can then replicate that training to other employees, we can meet and exceed any and all expectations and needs that any organization has to provide the safest and most economical training possible.

There are several reasons why many facilities and organizations have Phoenix Training Group train a selected number of their employees to become VIP Response instructors to then train the rest of their staff. The first reason is that depending upon the part of the country that the organization is in, Phoenix Training Group instructors may not be located nearby the facility and it would not be cost effective for either the organization, or Phoenix Training Group to travel to their location. Another is that the organization has a sufficient number of selected employees within their facilities to have a large number of staff trained as VIP Response instructors, so if a few instructors leave, it will not cause the organization to find themselves short on instructors. The third is that it may be more cost effective for very large organizations with multiple locations to train enough VIP Response instructors to service all of their facilities, especially if there are adequate instructors to work within the different locations as part of their normal duties so they do not need to travel between facilities. The fourth is that the organization may have very experienced employees who become VIP Response instructors who are familiar with the multi-dimensional facets of the different facilities and locations that they have and are able to customize the training from their own experience to the different locations and disciplines. Every organization and facility has it’s own multi-dimensional dynamics that they work with among the people they serve and take care of, along with the employees who serve them and so the ability to customize the VIP Response training is especially important. This is why Phoenix Training Group is so far ahead of any other violence prevention program available, in that we provide that specific customization for every organization we work along side, helping them to address very individual needs and demands. So, whether Phoenix Training Group trains all of your employees, or a select number who can then replicate that training to other employees, we can meet and exceed any and all expectations and needs that any organization has to provide the safest and most economical training possible.

Not at all. Phoenix Training Group provides customized training for all walks of life within every industry on earth. On the ABOUT US page within our website, you’ll find a list of just some of the industries and environments that Phoenix Training Group provides workplace violence prevention and conflict resolution training for. We pride ourselves on developing a customized training for any environment, so if you have an organization or group of people who would like us to educate you on staying safe and resolving escalated situations and people within your organization or your life, contact us and we will customize a training program specifically for you.

Absolutely not. Unlike all other violence prevention programs available, we at Phoenix Training Group have never charged any additional costs for training materials necessary to conduct the classes for facilities. Once your employees become certified VIP Response instructors, they and the organization receive all materials, workbooks, paperwork, handouts, digital files and extras for free to use for as many classes as you like for the years that the instructors are under contract. All materials are included in the initial low price of the instructor training tuition. The only item we charge for, are the authorized certificates given out to the attendees, much like American Heart Life Support certificates that organizations are required to obtain in order to be compliant. But, unlike other programs that charge as much as $17.00 per certificate, per person for every student attending a class, every year, Phoenix Training Group only charges $3.00 per certificate, well under the usual rate that other education organizations charge for the same thing.