Posted By Tyler For discussion. What level of self defence would you suggest if the worst come to the worst amongst your lone workers? For instance how many of you would train your staff in self defence techniques, have personal alarms or even carry Mace (if the worse happens). Some may say that carrying Mace, or getting physical in self defence may put the organisation at risk of a civil claim and will not advise this at all. What are your thoughts? PS I know we should risk assess etc to try and ensure it doesn't come to this, but what if it does?

Posted By Bill Fisher I would even be cautious about goo on the face - what if they have an allergic reaction? John made a particularly important point - reasonable force. I suggest you think of the fire extinguisher scenario. Nowadayds fire extinguishers are there to assist you to get out of danger rather than necessarily to put out the fire. So train your staff in defence tatics from using words and body language to physical blockers. And indeed how to "run". Here I am thinking of how to get away from a threat. This rather than attack training will also stand the person in better defence should something horrible go wrong and they need to justify their actions in court. Regards Bill

Posted By steven bentham If there is a high risk of attack then self defence is the wrong solution to lone working: - its obvious, they need to work in pairs and have other procedures. Lower risk requires use of mobile phones + training to defuse situations. Teaching self defence to lone workers is a difficult road to travel; would you teach them to seriously injure an attacker? Would you teach them defence against knife attacks? Most hardened street fighters would knock seven bells out of someone with basic self defence training. [For my sins I've been involved in martial arts in my younger days and there is no chance at all you can teach an average person anything useful at all in a short time - other than run or talk your way out - if you thing differently go down to any boxing or martial arts training place, get your gloves on and try it out before you recommend it to your employees]

Posted By MichaelM Linda Along those lines, I seem to remember vaguely that a potential way to stop a sexual assualt was to claim you had an STD. I don't know if that would stop a determined attacker though. The vomitting idea might work though as most people cannot stand the idea of being sick or seeing someone being sick. Michael

Posted By Jasonjg There used to be Breakaway courses on this subject, which taught basic techniques. I think these have now been replaced with conflict resolution or De-escalation courses aimed more at diffusing aggression in the first place. As said previously, when you are actually faced with the scenario, many quick learned self-defence tactics are pretty much forgotten or the attempt can make things much worse. It is also very hard to convince men to carry personal alarms when lone working but an effort should be made along with regular checks via phone or other monitoring equipment. If it is lone working at your workplace then room design has a big part to play but when it is off site then things get much harder to handle especially in legal terms. Using mace/CS/karate and kung-foo in someones own home is going to do your employees and yourselves no justice in courts. I would consider contacting someone who works in the NHS as they face this everyday both on site and when visiting. Look at latest training developments in this area and converse with staff. One method I have seen was introduced by a friend of mine. His job was as a property manager for a organisation that supplies housing to recovering alcohol and drug users in the Manchester area. Part of the tenant’s agreements was to successfully go through a paced recovery timetable i.e. regular tests, counselling etc. Obviously there were occasional failures and a lot of property damage, no bill payments etc. His role was to commit eviction proceedings but not before having discussions to try and get things back on track. As you can imagine (in the real world) lots of conflicts would occur, especially when tenants failed tests. His tactic was to have someone available at the office with the pretence of being one of the highest managers in the organisation. When conflicts looked like they would be getting out of hand, a call to the office and tenant believed he was talking to senior figure. It is amazing how attitudes quickly calm down after a phone squabble with a director. Property manager is now thanked for allowing direct communication to powers at be and message is still gotten across. Customer service centre staff know this tactic very well. His favourite quote (bull **** baffles brains).

Posted By Robert (Rod) Douglas Tyler, E-Mail me direct and I will send you some "Bumff" regarding Lone Working which I use for some of my NHS clients. Aye, Rod D

Posted By Jasonjg Alex it helps but not all the time Do a uk google search on the following line:- Jason Gould attack Radcliffe 15 years on and off boxing and thats what you get when you dont pay a child for a publicity stunt (joke). Humour is the best medicine

Posted By Jasonjg Yes fine now. Unfortunately the machete did not make it due to my diligent head butting technique :). Thanks Jason