At Insight PBS, we take pride in our collaborative approach which empowers carers, supports participants and provide both with an improved quality of life. Success stories like our participant David’s is why we do what we do.
David’s Story
David* is a young man with a good sense of humour, is playful and enjoys socialising with others.
He has autism spectrum disorder, severe intellectual disability that is compounded with trauma. David has difficulty with communication and expressing his wants and needs. He also struggles coping with change and emotional regulation which greatly impacts his ability to live independently.
David presented with significant physical outbursts toward staff and would cause property damage. The staff team and David’s school were finding it increasingly difficult to support him and everyone involved was very concerned for his welfare and wanted to find a way to improve his quality of life.
Identifying causes of behaviours of concern and collaborative action
David’s staff team asked Insight PBS to help. Our first goal was to try and understand some of the reasons behind the behaviours and come up with a plan to support both David and the staff team. A functional behaviour assessment identified that the physical outbursts and property damage were largely due David’s severe difficulty with communication and expressing himself: he could only communicate in single word-short phrases.
A structured plan was put together to give David activity choices that would keep him occupied, as well as routine throughout the day. A communication plan was also put in place which involved visual communication, teaching staff how to use ‘first/then’ language, and using familiar phrases that David understood in a consistent way.
We conducted care team meetings and training involving the case manager, house leaders, support workers, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and school staff. Safety training was provided to David’s staff team which implemented proactive and reactive strategies with a focus on safety for everyone involved.
Implementation of the plan was not without its challenges. Due to David’s aversion to change, there was a spike in physical outburst behaviour due to sudden changes in the SDA.
Safety training which included training tailored for those supporting people living with a disability was provided to David’s staff team to reinforce and complement the initial proactive and reactive strategies.
How are things for David and those around him now?
Since the PBS plan implementation and safety training, staff have consistently implemented the proactive and reactive strategies which has seen great improvement for David. He has since shown significant improvement in identifying, expressing, and managing his emotions. Staff now feel safer and more equipped to provide support to David.
David is now better able to cope with his emotional dysregulation, where duration and frequency of episodes have decreased. He is now able to communicate emotions more effectively and follow a routine independently.
Support staff now also feel safer and less anxious. They are proud of David and of each other for all the hard work they have put in for the results they are seeing.
These improvements are without doubt because of the strategies such as staff training around proactive and reactive strategies that were individualised through collaboration and feedback. It shows what can be done when a support team are highly engaged, motivated to learn, communicate and implement strategies consistently.
*out of respect for our Participant’s privacy, we have changed their name.
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