The RAID model advocates a philosophy of care where professionals “play down disruptive behaviours as far as safety allows, and concentrate on recognising and reinforcing appropriate behaviour, so that it gradually displaces the disruptive behaviour”. It emphasises how the most extreme behaviours can be addressed through proactive encouragement of positive qualities and behaviours shown by an individual and clearly focuses on providing individuals with rewarding opportunities for progress. The aim is for the professional to focus on ‘green’ behaviours and reduce opportunities for ‘red’ behaviour thereby developing a therapeutic milieu. The process involves rewarding positive or ‘green’ behaviours in ways that help patients recognise their achievements; whilst ‘red’ behaviours are safely played down through the use of strategies such as distraction techniques. As a proactive approach, the RAID Model contrasts with approaches such as extinction and punishment in that the RAID Model allows you to act in the absence of extreme behaviour, whereas punishment and extinction only allow you to act when the extreme behaviour occurs.
History
The RAID Approach was written in 1990 by Dr William Davies, and established itself as a standard for setting and reinforcing positive behaviours in the UK.It was originally written as a positive approach to working with disturbed adolescents in secure conditions, but was quickly applied to people showing difficult and aggressive behaviour at any age, especially if they were in secure or residential facilities. Originally the approach described 13 relevant strategies for constructive working with such behaviour; the RAID acronym came later, as a memory-aid for the general theme that underpins the strategies. The acronym RAID was registered as a UK trademark in 1992, under class 41. In 2009 Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust used the same acronym for a mental health service. In January 2019the High Court judge, HH Melissa Clarke, found that Birmingham an SolihullNHS Foundation Trust had infringed the RAID trademark and they had to stop using it. The case was held in Birmingham, England, and was the first ever to be heard by the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court outside of London.
Evidence
The RAID model has been measured through the Overt Aggression Scale - Modified for Neurorehabilitation - and shown a decrease in aggressive behaviours by over 80% across a two year period. Research also shown that the RAID model significantly reduced the number of incidents of challenging behaviour on a medium secure LD ward.
Training
Training in the RAID approach is delivered by the Association for Psychological Therapies and has been attended by over 20,000 professionals working for the UK's National Health Service and independent healthcare providers.
