Does anyone know what methods and ways of communicating are effective when dealing with challenging behaviour?
It really depends on the individual and if they have any mental illness/disabilities/illnesses. For someone with altzheimers for example, you would almost use the same methods as very young children which are much less verbal in terms of consequences etc which don’t mean much. For physically challenging behaviour, staff should be trained in restraint techniques, for other behavioural issues, ignoring the behaviour is one way of dealing with it, praising good or non-challenging behaviour in other residents, withdrawal of privileges (but not basic needs!). Alot of these are similar methods you would use with children of varying ages. Sad but effective I’m afraid. Where it is an older person with no impairments, asking why they are behaving in a particular way can be beneficial as it may indicate other problems and/or abusive behaviour/language by other residents/staff.
the best two programs I know and are effective depending on the age are 123 magic a simple system of rules consequences and you use time out and warning 1,2,3 there is more to it but is simple better from young to about 12-15 The next system a little different is the magnificent Restorative Justice, this is a complex societal process where the is monitoring and negotiation between challenging behaviour child and group affected, this needs training to all parties involved. it is high quality and overlooks society rules and why we need that, opens the discussion on justice and its approaches to most effective practices, this is more effective than jail. look it up on the net, an Australian author by the name of Mrs Blood had written a free paper find it is just a doc input DOC restorative justice or PPT.
