By Mikaela Paterson | VALUES Manager
As supporters of VALUES we wanted to let you know about an ongoing piece of work we have been doing that has really made a positive difference to people's lives.
Roman (not his real name) has been attending VALUES for several years. Coming to VALUES means that his family are able to work while he attends sessions such as football, pool and multi-sports, all things that he loves to do. He loves to be with people and to help staff but he also can show aggressive behaviour towards other clients. The combination of having a learning disability, hearing loss and having English as a second language meant that we were finding it very difficult to explain to Roman why he should not hit people. His aggressive behaviour was becoming more frequent and Roman was missing out on parties and trips as we had to keep him apart from certain people. This just made him just made him more upset.
We asked for a referral to the Community Nurse Team and Speech and Language Therapy and were assigned Emma and Pauline. They talked to staff and did observations of Roman's sessions.Then they came to tell us about the Positive Behaviour Strategy they had put together. They explained that the key is to make the environment as good as possible for the individual so that negative behaviours are less likely to manifest and react to warning signs that he was becoming anxious before it escalates into aggressive behaviour.
There was a range of changes we made to how we work with Roman, much of this revolved around his communication. We shifted from looking at how to react to his negative behaviour to working on how we could improve his positive communication. We created a communication book with pictoral timetable, some images about emotions, photos of him doing some of his key signs (his are slightly different from the standard ones) and a place to draw, write and stick photos of things that he could talk to staff about. This has become the most important part of the book. All staff have the same information to answer his questions and he includes photos of people and places he likes and when he is proud to have scored a goal.
Now, when we see the early signs that Roman is getting anxious we can resolve any issues using his communication book for visual reference or redirect him to something positive (now we have much to choose from!).
Mikaela, VALUES manager said:
"Roman seem so much happier now. He always has a smile and something to tell us about. He is more included in what is going on at VALUES. He can attend parties, he can sit next to people he previously couldn’t be in the same room as. I hope this doesn’t jinx things but so far he has not displayed any of the aggressive behaviour we used to find so difficult to manage. I am so please that we have been able to improve his life like this.
We are now using the Positive Behaviour Strategy as a template for how we can improve the experience of coming to VALUES for other clients and are already starting to see improvements for them too. The positive changes aren't limited to while people are at VALUES though, they spill over to their home lives too!"
Thank you for your conitued support of VALUES to enable us to change people's lives for the better.
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By Mikaela Paterson | VALUES Manager
By Mikaela Paterson | VALUES Manager
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