Positive Behaviour Support.
Look beyond the behaviour. Understand what’s behind it.
Behaviour is telling us something.
Sometimes it’s obvious. Sometimes it takes a little detective work.
A behaviour might be a response to frustration, communication difficulties, something in the environment, an unmet need or a situation that’s difficult to manage.
Positive Behaviour Support looks beyond what happened to understand why it may be happening.
So rather than starting with: “How do we stop this behaviour?”
We start somewhere more useful: “What might this person be trying to tell us?”
Our people ask ‘why?’ for a living.
CareChoice’s Behaviour Support Practitioners bring experience across psychology, disability, mental health, education, complex support and forensic settings.
They come from different backgrounds and have different areas of expertise. But they share a focus on understanding the person and finding practical strategies that can make everyday life better.
Curiosity first. Strategies second.
Good Positive Behaviour Support starts with understanding the person, their strengths, communication, routines, environment, relationships and what’s happening around the behaviour.
A CareChoice Behaviour Support Practitioner may speak with the person and the people who know them well, observe what’s happening and undertake a Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA).
In our experience, context matters. A lot. Sometimes the clue is what happened. But just as often, it’s what happened five minutes earlier.
Behaviour doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Neither should the plan for supporting it.
Then we work out what could help.
Once there’s a clearer picture of what’s happening, the focus shifts to practical strategies.
That might include:
- changing something in the person’s environment
- supporting communication
- building new skills
- recognising triggers or early signs of distress
- finding different ways to respond
- helping everyone around the person provide more consistent support.
Where required, these strategies are brought together in an individual Behaviour Support Plan, giving the people involved practical guidance they can actually use. CareChoice also monitors strategies over time and adjusts them as circumstances change.
Consistency can make a big difference.
Family members. Support Workers. Teachers. Allied health professionals. Other people involved in someone’s life.
When everybody responds differently to the same situation, things can get confusing pretty quickly.
PBS helps build a shared understanding and gives the people around someone practical strategies they can use consistently.
Same person. Same goal. Same approaches.
Less restriction. More possibility.
Where restrictive practices are being used, CareChoice focuses on positive strategies that aim to reduce their use over time, while supporting the person’s safety, rights, dignity and quality of life.
It’s an important part of what Positive Behaviour Support is ultimately trying to achieve: finding better ways for a person’s needs to be understood and supported.
When something keeps happening, it’s worth asking why.
Positive Behaviour Support may be worth exploring when behaviour is affecting someone’s wellbeing, safety, relationships, participation or everyday life.
It can also help when the people around someone aren’t sure why something is happening, don’t know how best to respond, or find themselves trying different approaches without much success.
You don’t need to know why the behaviour is happening before you ask for help.
Figuring that out is part of the work.
Where we provide Positive Behaviour Support
In person
CareChoice currently provides Positive Behaviour Support for eligible participants across selected areas of Melbourne, including the outer east, south, south-east and Mornington Peninsula.
TelePBS
Remote Positive Behaviour Support through TelePBS may also be available where appropriate.
Meet our team.
FAQs.
Positive Behaviour Support is an evidence-informed approach to understanding why behaviours occur and developing practical strategies that support the person’s needs, skills, independence and quality of life.
A Functional Behaviour Assessment, or FBA, looks at a behaviour and what’s happening around it to better understand its function. In other words, what need it may be attempting to meet or what the person may be trying to communicate. CareChoice uses FBA as part of its behaviour support service.
A Behaviour Support Plan brings together individual strategies for supporting the person, including any restrictive practices where applicable and strategies designed to reduce their use over time.
It can. Positive Behaviour Support often works best when the people around someone share an understanding of what’s happening and how best to respond.
CareChoice currently offers TelePBS where remote delivery is appropriate for the person and support required.
Tell us what’s been happening. You don’t need to diagnose the behaviour or know what kind of assessment you need before you contact us.
You don’t need to have the behaviour figured out.
Tell us what’s happening, what you’ve noticed and what support is already around the person.
Our team can talk through whether Positive Behaviour Support may be appropriate and what happens next.