Joel Lashley

Senior Officer Joel Lashley is a Crisis Management and Defensive Tactics Instructor, who has worked as a public safety professional for over 25 years, including 18 years of service in the healthcare setting. Joel leads the training program for hospital, clinical, and social outreach staff in clinical violence management, at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, the only level-one pediatric trauma center in the region, serving critically injured and ill patients throughout the mid-west. Joel is a trainer, program developer, and consultant on forensic patients, behavioral restraint, and special needs clients and subjects. He has trained nursing, clinical, social work, psychiatric, education, law enforcement and other public safety professionals, in the management of clients in crisis and those with cognitive disabilities. He has consulted to healthcare systems, school districts, police departments, and crisis management companies. He is a certified instructor for Interventions for Patients with Challenging Behaviors®, Principles of Subject Control (POSC®), and Tactical Communications (Verbal Judo®). Joel has developed models for the management of forensic patients or ‘patient prisoners’ in the clinical setting. He also co-developed a program for managing the challenging behaviors of children, adolescents, and adults with autism and other cognitive disabilities for police officers, corrections officers, and healthcare providers. The fact that his son has autism has made him concerned about how this segment of our population is managed in the educational, medical, and law enforcement arenas. Future articles deal with this and other issues facing our medical and mental health facilities, as we search for ways to best protect, serve, and when necessary, maintain the safe custody of these special populations.