What is Positive Behaviour Support and how can it benefit behaviours that challenge?

Positive behaviour support (PBS) is a structured, person-centred approach which aims to improve the quality of life for those who experience behaviours that challenge.

Most commonly, PBS is used to reduce behaviours that challenge in those living with learning disabilities and individuals living with autism who are at risk of developing or engaging in behaviours that challenge. The primary aim of PBS is to improve quality of life, which in turn helps to reduce behaviours that challenge.

PBS provides the right compassionate support for a person to help them lead a meaningful life and learn new skills without unnecessary restrictions.

Using practical science about why behaviours that challenge happen, PBS shifts the focus away from what is challenging and aims to understand them and why they are happening.

What are the benefits of positive behaviour support (PBS) for those with behaviours that challenge?

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) offers numerous benefits for individuals and those who support them, particularly in settings where challenging behaviours may arise. 

Perhaps most importantly, PBS focuses on enhancing an individual’s quality of life to foster a more positive and fulfilling life experience for each individual. It looks to provide person-centred proactive strategies to help reduce behaviours that challenge without putting the person or others at risk, or by having to implement unnecessary restrictions.

By teaching people to develop alternative means of communication such as hand gestures or words, it leads to improved social interaction and emotional regulation, helping individuals to handle situations more effectively.

Positive Behaviour Support can improve relationships for individuals with caregivers, family members and friends - creating a collaborative approach that empowers caregivers with the right tools, training and understanding they need in order to provide consistent and effective support.

What kind of PBS support does the Lifeways Specialist Support Team offer for those with behaviours that challenge?

At Lifeways, our supported living and residential care services are designed to enhance the quality of life for each individual we support. Our in-house Specialist Support Team plays a key role in helping colleagues understand how a person’s condition or illness affects their needs, enabling us to tailor positive behaviour support plans accordingly.

Our team consists of Specialist Trainers and Practitioners covering all of our services in England, Scotland and Wales. They are led by Lead Specialists and headed up by the Specialist Support Manager.

The Team uses positive behaviour support (PBS) to design PBS plans which focus on increasing meaningful engagement for individuals in our services. 

“Instead of trying to change the behaviour directly, we try to create environments that produce what the person needs. So, it takes away the need to behave in a way that might be challenging and might be perceived as challenging. Instead of trying to force a change in behaviour, we look at what the person needs, and we try to meet that need in advance and proactively.” said Lifeways' Lead Specialist Support Manager, Jo Lourmpa. 

We understand that behaviours that challenge happen for a reason, and we aim to understand why a person is behaving a certain way in order to design and implement person-centred proactive strategies to manage it.

How do we support individuals with behaviours that challenge?

For those who exhibit behaviours that challenge, the positive behaviour support framework helps us to focus not on the behaviours that challenge – but instead to understand why these behaviours occur.

To ensure that positive behaviour support is implemented with individuals in a productive way, a positive behaviour support plan is put into place. 

A PBS plan is created after a Functional Behavioural Assessment (FBA) has been completed and helps us understand why an individual presents with certain behaviours that challenge. 

The PBS plan outlines strategies to reduce the likelihood of behaviours that challenge occurring in the future, as well as effective ways for colleagues to respond when they do. It sets realistic goals and offers a personalised approach to enhancing an individual’s quality of life by identifying what matters most to them from their own perspective.

Functional assessment

A member of the Specialist Support Team will collect information through observations, interviews and assessments to understand a person’s behaviour from the person’s perspective. This means looking at the purpose the behaviour has for someone and what is the person trying to communicate as well as assessing their wider social and physical environment.

Behaviour support planning

The Lifeways Specialist Support Team will use the conclusions of their functional assessments to inform any plans developed from that point onwards. The focus of all plans is on proactive approaches. This might include adapting communication to the person’s needs, teaching skills to help a person become more independent or ways of coping with situations they find difficult.

Implementing Behaviour Support Plans

We work alongside teams to deliver training that is person focused and diagnosis-specific, with the aim of helping colleagues to understand how to best support that individual.

Monitoring & Evaluation

An important part of what we do is also monitoring and evaluating the efficacy of our positive behaviour support plans and giving practice leaders a cohesive way of monitoring and maintaining quality support. 

This might include watching and writing down incidents, and using lists or other ways to help inform changes to the plan if necessary.

Transitions

Finally, we also offer transition support for individuals with complex needs moving into Lifeways services. This ensures that we get the transition right from the start - supporting both the person and the staff team at the early stages of building rapport and the right support system.

How can Lifeways help?

At Lifeways, we have a team of highly-trained Positive Behaviour Support Practitioners who work with our support workers to help create plans and processes to ensure that everyone we support can lead a fulfilled life.

Find out more about supported living, or start your search to find support near you.