Challenging behavior can often interfere with an individual's ability to achieve self-determination and independence. Our team uses person-centered thinking and a positive behavior approach so that our treatment plans focus not only on the challenging behavior, but on increasing the individual’s ability to access, control, and expect the routines and activities that are most important to them.

Intervention and Treatment - If an individual behaves in a way that is problematic for themselves or others, a clinician from our team performs a functional behavior assessment that carefully identifies the situations and environments where problematic behaviors are most likely to occur. Our clinicians not only spend several hours with the individual and review their records thoroughly but also use a collaborative approach by collecting information from the people who know the individual best, such as their family members and guardians.

Based on these findings, the clinician identifies skill areas that the individual may benefit from developing, and trains staff on how best to prevent and respond to situations most likely to lead to challenging behavioral issues. The clinician continues to monitor their progress, attend planning meetings with staff who work with the individual, and adjust plans and techniques according to the individual’s progress and improvement.

Because of our in-house team and the support they provide, we’ve successfully decreased the number of challenging behaviors and psychiatric hospitalizations for individuals in our program.