Positive Behaviour Support series Workshop 1: Fundamental Skills in Positive Behaviour Support

Description

Positive Behaviour Support interventions for people with disability are in great demand, however there is much uncertainty about how to effectively, ethically and legally deliver such interventions.

This workshop is for people that are either new to Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), new to the disability sector or are looking for a refresher in what Positive Behaviour Support entails. The series covers the core elements of PBS that are transferrable across all settings, including home, schools, disability support services, residential support settings, aged care, hospitals and mental health services.

Attendance at this workshop will allow people to have a gain a sound understanding of what a full PBS intervention involves, where their skills currently sit, and where they may need to focus attention for skills development.

Based on the framework presented by Gore et al. (2013), this workshop will present the key components that are required for best practice and ethical positive behaviour support. This includes a values driven approach with a focus on quality of life for the person with disability, theory and evidence base (including functional behaviour analysis) and the process of implementing a successful PBS plan.

Who is this workshop for?

Given that consistency is key for PBS interventions to be effective, the more members of a team who understand the core principles of PBS, the better. Therefore, this workshop is considered suitable for:

• Allied health professionals
• Psychologists
• Nurses and Nurse Practitioners (including Mental Health Nurses and Mental Health Nurse Practitioners)
• Support coordinators
• Case managers
• Disability service managers
• Senior support staff
• Therapy assistants

Note that this workshop is pitched at an introductory or refresher level

Learning outcomes

This workshop will provide fundamental and practical information about the following components of Positive Behaviour Support:

• Background and assumptions of Positive Behaviour Support
• Values driven approaches to reducing challenging behaviours
• Defining and prioritising challenging behaviours
• Data collection
• Functional behaviour assessment
• Generating hypothesis and functional analysis
• Identifying functionally equivalent replacement behaviours (if appropriate)
• Multicomponent interventions to change behaviour proactively, and manage behaviour (reactively)
• Plan implementation and evaluation
• Restrictive practices

About the presenter

Dr Lee Cubis is a Clinical Psychologist with 22 years of experience working in the disability sector where he has delivered frontline services to individuals with moderate to severe behaviours of concern. This includes work with people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Intellectual Disability, Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) and neurodegenerative disease (e.g. dementia, Multiple Sclerosis, Huntington's Disease). Lee works with individuals, families and formal support workers across university, private and community ABI settings. He regularly runs professional development training to the disability support sector in the areas of Positive Behaviour Support and adapting interventions for people with cognitive disability. Lee is also an active researcher in disability and regularly presents at national and international conferences.

What is the Positive Behaviour Support series?

The development of the Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) series was inspired by feedback from practitioners in the field who are receiving referrals for PBS, but were not sure if they have the expertise to provide adequate and appropriate PBS interventions. There are many requirements to implement PBS interventions to a satisfactory standard, and although people have great expertise in their fields (e.g. developing strategies), many also identify there is areas for improvement (e.g. functional behaviour assessment). When done well, PBS interventions are an effective way to reduce behaviours of concern and improve quality of life in people with disability.

The PBS series was designed to allow people to focus on the various areas

of PBS that they feel they most need the professional development. The workshops are designed to be modular (i.e. you can pick individual workshops to attend, or attend all if you wish). Each workshop will be a full day of learning and include practical skills and resources to take away and use in your own practice.

The workshops include a focus on the following:

Workshop 1: Fundamental Skills in Positive Behaviour Support

Workshop 2: Functional Behaviour Analysis

Workshop 3: Positive Behaviour Support interventions

Workshop 4: Writing a Positive Behaviour Support Plan