About Therapeutic Behaviour
Challenging behaviours, also referred to as behaviours of concern, are one of the most frequent and distressing outcomes of brain injury as they create safety issues, derail social relationships and erode participation in meaningful life roles.
As health professionals, working with people with cognitive and behavioural impairment we can find the resulting challenging situations complex to understand, and often overwhelming to manage.
The Therapeutic Behaviour approach builds on the evidence base of positive behaviour support (PBS). Importantly three pillars are added to a foundation of PBS: firstly, an understanding of brain injury and recovery, secondly, practical knowledge of therapeutic, least restrictive practices and thirdly, interventions to foster skill development and life role participation.
Whether you are a therapist, a psychologist, or a behaviour support practitioner, Therapeutic Behaviour courses offer professional development opportunities that will help grow your confidence and capacity to work with people with brain impairment and behaviours of concern.
The Brain and Behaviour
We’ll help you:
- understand the brain and behaviour change after injury
- broaden your knowledge of the ways behaviour can become dysregulated following brain injury
- assess and document behaviours of concern
- identify antecedents and consequences to challenging and pro-social behaviours
- improve your clinical reasoning skills to determine the function of behaviour
- expand your knowledge of cognitive impairment and practical management strategies
- deepen your understanding of recovery following injury to the brain
Least Restrictive Practice
We’ll help you:
- develop practical skills and therapeutic approaches to manage all types and levels of challenging behaviours
- establish least restrictive social environments
- adopt a pro-active approach to challenging situations
- create therapeutic behaviour plans to optimise client outcomes
- strengthen your understanding of the NDIS behaviour support rules
- apply a clinical reasoning framework to understand which restrictive practices are regulated and how to distinguish them from therapeutic practice
Skills and Participation
We’ll help you:
- understand the critical relationship between behaviour and participation
- widen your repertoire of therapeutic interventions, tools and strategies to build pro-social and replacement behaviours
- shape therapeutic programs to build independent living, communication and coping skills
- manage challenging behaviours in the context of everyday activities
- embed therapeutic behaviour plans in routines of everyday life
- practically tailor programs to maximise long-term participation in meaningful life roles
Sue Sloan
I’m a clinical neuropsychologist and occupational therapist and also work as a behaviour support practitioner. For over 40 years I’ve been fascinated with the brain and continually seek to deepen my understanding of brain injury. I’ve now had thousands of hours experience providing behaviour support to clients with brain injury and have built my career supervising, lecturing and publishing in the field. As described above, all my experience has led me to know there are three fundamental pillars of a therapeutic approach to behaviour support that can successfully transform people’s lives. In the free 20 minute mini course, and the extended online courses, you will deepen your understanding of what works and what doesn’t. You will learn that, with therapeutic behaviour support you can make a difference to individual’s lives, their families and support team.