Safewards

Fewer conflicts, less containment — because your team understands what drives them and has practised the skills to prevent them.

Safewards is the evidence-based model for reducing conflict and containment on inpatient units and, increasingly, in EDs. Xantha has helped more than a dozen Australian health networks implement it, training over 3,000 staff through actor-led simulation and a Kickstart, Scale, Sustain pathway.

A nurse crouched to eye level beside a seated patient in a mental-health unit day room

Why Safewards

Ten interventions. One shared way of working.

Safewards gives a ward a common language for the flashpoints that lead to restraint, seclusion and injury — and ten practical interventions, from mutual expectations to calm-down methods, that reduce them. It is as much about the everyday therapeutic relationship between staff and consumers as it is about the flashpoints: the interventions build the understanding and trust that stop conflict starting. The evidence is strong. The hard part is implementation: getting a whole team to use the interventions, on a bad shift, without prompting.

That is what Xantha does. We don't teach the model from the front of the room; we put your staff in front of a simulated patient, in scenarios drawn from your own incident reports, and let them practise the intervention until it holds.

An actor in a 1960s nurse's uniform — white cap, blue dress and red cape — holding a clipboard in a training room

How every workshop begins

Welcome to Woop Woop General Hospital.

From the moment participants arrive, they're transported to the waiting room of a rural Australian hospital in 1969. Cast as "hippy" patients, they discover that a mysterious encounter at the local post office has changed their behaviour and landed them in hospital.

It's more than an icebreaker. In a safe, playful setting, participants meet several of the Safewards originating domains from the patient's side. Our actors show how pressure shapes everyday practice, and our facilitators model more skilful, Safewards-informed responses — a memorable foundation for the reflection, discussion and practice that follow.

Kickstart, Scale, Sustain

A pathway, not a one-off workshop.

Most services start with a champion cohort, extend awareness across the organisation, then keep fidelity high with pulse checks and their own certified facilitators. Every step is scoped and quoted for your service.

Kickstart

Safewards Champion Program

Build a cohort of champions on the units where it matters most. Every participant completes the online Safewards In Practice masterclass, then a one-day Interventions Workshop: two facilitators, up to five simulated patients, and practice-heavy simulation on the three interventions your service chooses.

Onsite Intensive (up to 10) or Hosted Immersive (up to 16), or a custom program for 16+
Two implementation sessions bookend the workshop
Certificate of completion, ~11 hours CPD

Kickstart

Safewards Foundations

For teams not yet ready for a champion cohort: masterclass access plus a 3.5-hour interactive workshop with one facilitator and two actors. Actor-led demonstrations that make the interventions concrete for a whole ward in an afternoon.

Half day, one cohort of up to 24
Full day, two cohorts of up to 48

Scale

Awareness campaign

Take Safewards from the champions to the whole organisation: a one-day shoot with three of your champions, three poster designs, a four-part email campaign and a custom "Introduction to Safewards" module for your LMS.

Content your staff recognise as their own
Ready for onboarding and mandatory training

Sustain

Pulse checks, coaching and certification

On-site fidelity checks (two days per ward), virtual coaching for champions, refresher training, and Safewards Train the Trainer — a three-day facilitator certification with a monthly community of practice and a 12-month licence to run the program yourself.

Facilitator certification and an immersive learning kit
Simulated patients sourced and briefed locally

A nurse on a break watching an online module on a laptop

Safewards In Practice masterclass

The online foundation every participant completes first.

One to two hours, self-paced, with twelve months of access. It covers the model, the evidence and the ten interventions so that workshop time is spent practising, not lecturing. Licences are included in every program and can also be provided for staff who are not in a cohort.

Preview the masterclass on learn.xantha.com.au →

Common questions

What nurse unit managers usually ask us.

Which staff should attend?

Nurses, consultants, allied health, security and administrative staff — anyone who interacts with a consumer. Mixed groups work best because the interventions depend on a shared approach.

How much time does a champion need?

The online masterclass takes one to two hours, self-paced, and is opened up to two weeks before the workshop. The Interventions Workshop is a single eight-hour day.

Can we run it ourselves after the first cohort?

Yes. Train the Trainer certifies your facilitators, and the Immersive Learning Package gives them the guide, costumes, character cards and props to run Woop Woop General Hospital on their own wards.

Do you work outside mental health?

Increasingly, yes: emergency departments have been the fastest-growing setting, and the same method underpins Care Under Pressure for general and private hospitals.

Start with one unit. Scale when it works.

Every Safewards engagement begins with a conversation about your data, your rosters and your champions.

Book a 20-minute call