Services / Positive Behaviour Support
Approach to care.
At Stepping Stones, our aim is to provide environments that work for the people we support, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge to lead happier and more independent lives. That is why we adopted the Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) approach to care.
At Stepping Stones, we believe in the importance of personalised care to ensure that we are supporting the needs of every individual we take on.
As an essential part of our support, we will create personalised plans with the people we support to ensure they are receiving the right care that suits them and their loved ones.
PBS is a person-centred approach to caring for people with a learning disability, who may display challenging behaviours.
What Are the Benefits of PBS?
- It is person-centred, considering every single need of the individual.
- It aims to understand the challenging behaviours of individuals by assessing the physical and social environment in which the behaviour occurs.
- Uses findings to develop, implement and evaluate a personalised system of support.
- It is proactive and preventative, focusing on replacing old behaviours with new ones.
- It ensures mindfulness of preferences around communication.
- It is as un-restrictive as possible.
- It combines different perspectives from different professionals.
- It works to enhance quality of life.
- It frequently leads to cost savings through reduced need for high staffing levels.
What Are the Three Main Elements?
Research shows that PBS improves the quality of life for people and helps reduce behaviours that challenge.
- The adoption of values, which increases quality of life, participation and valued social roles. This ultimately aims to discourage any restrictive practices.
- Theory and evidence to assess and support behaviour change and to help understand how challenging behaviour develops.
- Using data to drive decision-making and inform function-based intervention. Data will help to monitor and evaluate interventions over the long-term.
What Are Behaviours that Challenge?
Challenging behaviours can damage people’s quality of life and safety, which can sometimes lead them to be excluded from the community in some way.
They can be looked at as a form of communication, as the person is letting others know their needs are not being met.
They can include, but are not restricted to:
- Tantrums.
- Hitting or kicking other people.
- Throwing things.
- Self-harming.
How Can PBS Be Delivered?
At Stepping Stones, our PBS specialist will be on-hand to conduct analysis and devise plans and strategies for the people we support. However, everyone involved with the individual, including the individual themselves, will be involved in carrying out the support plan.
PBS is delivered by:
- Conducting a functional assessment to help understanding the reasons behind the behaviours that challenge.
- Producing the plans in partnership with the person and their families.
- Focusing on teaching new skills to combat behaviours that challenge.
- Using reactive strategies, including distraction, changing to the environment and the minimum use of restrictive intentions.
- Teach the person what to do when they encounter a trigger for their challenging behaviour.
All of our staff members are taught about the principles of Positive Behaviour Support throughout their training. Management is also trained in how to support their staff after incidents of challenging behaviour.
Choose Stepping Stones.
If you would like to learn more about Positive Behaviour Support at Stepping Stones, do not hesitate to contact us.
You can also read more about Positive Behaviour Support on the NICE website.