Protective Behaviours: safety, confidence and self‐esteem
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17465729200400004 |
| Pages | 25-29 |
| Author | Jocelyn Rose |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
journal of mental health promotion •volume 3•issue 1 •march 2004 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd
Protective Behaviours: safety, confidence and
self-esteem
ABSTRACT
Protective Behaviours is an empowerment process that raises self-esteem and self-confidence and increases assertiveness in the context of
feeling safe. Developed in the US as a response to legislation around the prevention of child abuse, it was initially designed to be taught to
young children in the classroom. Other ways of using it have subsequently been explored and it has been recognised as having a wider
application than child abuse prevention: notably with victims (and perpetrators) of bullying, domestic violence and peer pressure. A key
element of Protective Behaviours is empowering those who have been marginalised, excluded or denied a voice. This paper outlines the
history and process and attempts to establish an evidence base for its effectiveness.
Jocelyn Rose
Regional programme lead, mental health
and well-being
Health Improvement Team
NHS Dumfries and Galloway
Feature
Protective Behaviours began in the mid-1970s in the
US. It was devised originally by Peg West, a school
social worker in Madison, Wisconsin, partly in
response to her own feeling that the young people who
were coming to her for help did so because they were
not feeling safe and partly because the state legislature
was evaluating school-based child abuse prevention
programmes and finding most of them wanting. In
devising a programme that would fit the State of
Wisconsin’s criteria, West found that she had created
something that addressed the wider agenda of safety.
Protective Behaviours is not ‘about’ child abuse, or
bullying, or stress within relationships, or social
exclusion, or lack of self-esteem: it concerns whether or
not an individual feels safe, how they identify that, and
what they can do about it. So it may address child
abuse but it also provides a context for tackling other
problems or difficulties where someone is feeling
unsafe.
Within the US, Protective Behaviours programmes
are still usually found within schools settings. In
Australia it was taken up in the 1980s and promoted
by an organisation concerned with community safety
initiatives, in which the police, social services and
health services all had a role. It was subsequently
expanded to encompass therapeutic as well as
preventive work, one-to-one and small-group work as
well as classroom lessons, and the whole community,
not just the community of a school. All these elements
were in place when Protective Behaviours was
introduced to the UK, through a police connection, in
the early 1990s. It is also being used by child
psychologists and therapists, by youth workers and
social workers, by those working in the community, in
peer education and peer counselling initiatives and by
young people themselves.
The process in brief
The Protective Behaviours ‘process’ starts with the
individual and teaches that: ‘We all have the right to
feel safe all the time.’ This is the first and central theme
of the process. The idea is one of inclusivity: everyone
is included, and the right to feel safe operates all the
time. In a typical training session, the idea of ‘rights’
will then be discussed. This encompasses rights and
responsibilities, then perhaps a list of what people feel
are basic human rights, in which the right to feel safe is
included. Discussion points include access to human
rights and what constitutes a right. The underpinning
idea is that, even if people are not feeling safe, even if
feeling safe is not a usual condition, there exists the
opportunity to feel safe, because it is a basic human
right. The message is positive, and the rest of the
process explores how an individual can keep themselves
feeling safe and what, if they’re not feeling safe, they
can do about it.
25
To continue reading
Request your trial