Dealing With Challenging Behaviour
Within a home for adults with learning disabilities, you would use many different policies and procedures to tackle challenging behaviour.
The mental capacity act would be used here. ‘The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) is designed to protect and empower individuals who may lack the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their care and treatment’ (NHS Choices. (2015). This legislation applies to anyone over the age of 16. It ensures that anyone who has a serve disability, dementia or any other mental issues.
Although an individual may have these mental conditions, they may still be able to make decisions of their own. They would have someone who would give them all of the information and a carer or parent would then help the individual to make the best decision for the benefit of their health.
An individual may not be able to make decisions on their finances but they could still have the capacity to make decisions on shopping. The mental capacity act believes that everyone has the right to make their own decisions.
This act aims to try and ensure that this does happen. This would be used to help deal with challenging behaviour because it would make the individual feel that they are able to make their own decisions about their care. This would also stop challenging behaviour because they may feel that if they can have some say in their care and treatment then they don’t need to act out or become behaviourally challenging. It would also be used because it can give the service user more of a choice over their care and this could then help them feel more in control rather than sitting on the side-lines.
The mental health act would also be used here. ‘The Mental Health Act 1983 (which was substantially amended in 2007) is the law in England and Wales that allows people with a ‘mental disorder’ to be admitted to hospital, detained and treated without their consent – either for their own health and safety, or for the protection of other people.’ (Mental Health care. (2015). The mental health act allows carers or parents to get the help that the service user may need. You can be detained in two different ways. One way is that a private place or a guardian decides that the individual’s mental health conditions is becoming a harm to the public.
The second way is that the police could see the individual in the street and could has a cause for concern on how stable an individual’s mental health is. They would then take you to the nearest hospital or they may take them to a police station. Once an individual has been admitted then the individual will undergo a mental health assessment to see if they are a danger or harm to themselves. In a home for adults with learning disabilities, if an individual at the home is displaying violence and really challenging behaviour then the carers can make the decision if the individual is a danger to themselves or another individual.
P3Suggest strategies to minimise effects of challenging behaviour in health and social care settings M2Discuss strategies used to minimise effects of one type of challenging behaviour in health and social care settings
Types of strategies
Person centred planning:
‘Person centred planning (PCP) provides a way of helping a person plan all aspects of their life, thus ensuring that the individual remains central to the creation of any plan which will affect them.’ (Foundation for people with learning disabilities. (2015). Person centred planning is about putting the service user at the heart of everything.
Effective communication
‘Effective communication helps us better understand a person or situation and enables us to resolve differences, build trust and respect, and create environments where creative ideas, problem solving, affection, and caring can flourish.’ (HelpGuide. (2015). Effective communication is about individual’s verbal skills. This can include choice of words, tone of voice, volume, pace, turn taking and how fast that you talk. This can all effect how effectively you communicate with others. As well as someone’s verbal skills, a service user preferred way of communicating should be taken into account. This could be whether they prefer to talk using sign language or they may like to communicate using pictures. This should all be taken into consideration.
Body language
‘Body language refers to the nonverbal signals that we use to communicate.’ (About Psychology. (2015). Body language is used everyday. It can be used to show how an individual is feeling and you can also use it to show how you are feeling. Body language s a significant part of modern communication. Body language is not about how we move to show how we are feeling. It is also about how we position our bodies to show how we are feeling. It is also about how we change our facial expressions and how are eyes move and focus. As well as this it is about our closeness and how this changes and how the gap between us and other people gets smaller or bigger.
Promoting self esteem
Self esteem is the opinion that an individual has of themselves. ‘When we have healthy self-esteem, we tend to feel positive about ourselves and about life in general.’ (NHS Choices. (2015). Raising low self esteem.). By having a positive self esteem, an individual would be able to deal with the ups and downs in life better. Low self esteem is the opposite to this. People with low self esteem generally have a negative outlook on life. Low self esteem is usually caused from something that happened at a young age. This could be from a parent, teacher, friend or carer. Low self esteem can change how someone behaviour or acts toward to others. It can also cause them to be a danger to themselves or others.
Understanding rules and boundaries:
To understand rules and boundaries there are many things that service workers can do. They can use ABC charts which can be used to monitor their behaviour. ABC charts can also be used to see if a service users behaviour is becoming more and more challenging which means the service workers can see if an intervention is needed. You can also use risk assessments. This can also help to monitor behaviour as they could be completed regularly. As well as this service workers would need to make sure that they are up to date with all of their training. This can help them to be able to deal with challenging behaviour because it means that they would know new ways to try to calm a service user or make sure that no harm comes to them or other service users.
Other strategies:
Other strategies which are in place to help deal with challenging behaviour are making sure there is a pleasant environment. This could help the service user to keep calm and not act out. This could also be used as a calming method when their behaviour is starting to become more challenging. Another strategy is arranging different varieties of activities. This could stop their behaviour becoming challenging because it means that the service workers could say that if they behaved correctly then they would be able to do the activity where as if their behaviour started to become challenging then they would be able to say that they wouldn’t be able to do the activity.
References:
- About Psychology. (2015). Understanding body language. Available: http://psychology.about.com/od/nonverbalcommunication/ss/understanding-body-language.htm. Last accessed 6th March 2015.
- Foundation for people with learning disabilities. (2015). Person Centred Planning. Available:
http://www.learningdisabilities.org.uk/help-information/learning-disability-a-z/p/person-centred-planning/. Last accessed 5th March 2015. - HelpGuide. (2015). Effective Communication. Available: http://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships/effective-communication.htm. Last accessed 6th March 2015.
- Mental Health care. (2015). Mental health act. Available: http://www.mentalhealthcare.org.uk/mental_health_act. Last accessed 5th March 2015.
- NHS Choices. (2015). Raising low self esteem. Available: http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth/pages/dealingwithlowself-esteem.aspx. Last accessed 7th March 2015.
- NHS Choices. (2015). What is the mental capacity act?. Available: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/Pages/mental-capacity.aspx. Last accessed 5th March 2015.
