Behaviour support team

The Behaviour Support Team was originally set up in November 2009 as a proactive approach to the challenges faced by individuals on the Autistic Spectrum, which often lead to episode of challenging behaviour.

The team is made up from a mixed range of experience and includes Positive Behavioral Management Trainers, Home Managers and support workers, from each of the six homes under the Homes Caring for Autism umbrella.

The team has worked collectively to produce new documentation, such as communication profiles and time-intensity models, to help support staff to support our individuals more effectively and proactively during times of increased anxiety.

To help gather this information effectively, the team has spent time with individuals from each of the homes. It has also looked at the physical environments that the individuals live in and made comments and suggestions accordingly.

We share good practice and positive achievements within the team and these can be adapted and used in other similar situations in other homes.

Working across the homes in this manner has meant that during times of heightened anxiety, the individual homes are more confident to call on the team for support and guidance.

The team has recently introduced an incident reporting software program which, when fully operational, will allow it to analyse all aspects of behaviour across the homes. The program allows the team to look at specific times of the day, at individuals, at activities and at places that have an increased frequency of incidents. This enables the pinpointing of triggers, difficult transitional periods and cues, in such a way that the information can be used in a proactive manner to help reduce further occurrences in the future and help to reduce anxieties within the individuals we support.