Managing challenging behaviours

Transcription

1 HCS Factsheet 015 Issue 2 Feb 2013 Review date Feb 2014 Managing challenging behaviours Health and Community Services has a policy for working with people with learning disabilities who show challenging behaviours. A policy is a document staff must look at and use when working with people in Hertfordshire. The law says staff must use this policy. It helps to keep everyone safe. We have recently changed our policy to make sure we are working with people in the best way to keep people safe. We had to make sure the policy said lots of things the Government wanted us to include. Hertfordshire County Council Health and Community Services Telephone:

2 Our policy tells staff to work with people in a person centred way. This means everything we do looks at the needs of that person. The most important part of managing challenging behaviours is to make sure staff communicate with the person involved. Communication means talking to someone. If the person cannot speak we will do everything we can to communicate with them so they can understand what we are doing and why we are doing it. This factsheet tells you more about challenging behaviours and how Health and Community Services work to help people who show challenging behaviours. You can talk to the person who supports you if you want to find out more. What are challenging behaviours? Challenging behaviours can be when someone physically hurts themselves or others. This might be because they punch, bite or kick people. Page 2 of 5

3 Challenging behaviours can also be when someone verbally hurts themselves or others. This might be because they shout, swear, bully people or use bad words which are racist, sexist or insulting. Challenging behaviours mean that someone s actions could cause them, or someone near them, to be hurt. The people who could be hurt might be family, friends or staff who work with the person. What happens if someone shows challenging behaviours? If someone shows challenging behaviours it might mean they will not be able to do things they like to do, things like going swimming, going to the shops or visiting friends. What will Health and Community Services do to help people with challenging behaviours? There might be times when people know they get upset, unhappy or angry and need extra support from staff. When that happens a member of staff will be happy to help. The first thing staff will do to help people with their challenging behaviours is to make a risk assessment. A risk assessment will look at how much support someone needs to help with everyday life. Page 3 of 5

4 Sometimes a person will have a Behaviour Management Plan. This plan tells staff and carers what to do if that person becomes upset or unsettled. It also tells staff the best way to support them to make sure they are treated fairly and with dignity and respect. People should know about their own plan as they, and their family or carers, should have helped staff to put it together. People can ask to see their plan if they want to. If people are in danger of hurting themselves or someone else staff might have to place their hands on the person and hold them to stop them doing something which might hurt them or someone near them. We call this physical intervention. Staff will only do this to make sure the person is safe and the people around them are safe. There is a law which tells us how staff should hold someone so that they can do it safely. All staff are trained to make sure they can hold people safely. If staff have to hold someone to stop them hurting themselves or someone else they will fill in a form. It is the law for staff to fill in this form. The form says what happened, what staff did to support the person and if the person, or others, have been hurt. Page 4 of 5

5 If staff have done everything they can and the person or others around them are still in danger they might have to call the Police. If the Police are called the person might be arrested and taken to the police station. Staff will only call the Police if everything else they have tried has not worked. Talking about challenging behaviours We want to make sure everyone we work with is safe and happy. If you are worried about your behaviour or the behaviour of someone you know please talk to the person who supports you. If you want to talk to someone about anything in this leaflet please speak to the person who supports you. They will try to help you. Abuse hurts: If you are worried that someone you know is at risk of harm, neglect or mistreatment please call us in confidence to report your concerns on This information can be made available on request in other formats, including large print, Braille, audio and other languages. Page 5 of 5