What is positive Behaviour Support
Positive Behaviour Support looks at why a behaviour is happening in the first place, not just the behaviour itself. Often it's someone trying to communicate something, even when it doesn't look that way from the outside.
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Rather than aiming to stop a behaviour, the focus is on building skills, improving day-to-day life, and shaping environments that actually work for the person in them. Support built this way tends to last, because it deals with the reason behind something instead of just the surface of it.
Functional Behaviour Assessment
A Functional Behaviour Assessment looks at what's driving a behaviour and what it might be doing for the person, whether that's getting a need met, avoiding something, or communicating something else entirely. It's built from a mix of conversations, direct observation, reviewing existing records and collecting data over time, not just a single meeting or a form.
Interim Vs Comprehensive
Behaviour Support Plans
An interim Behaviour Support Plan is put in place early, within 30 days, to give the participant and their support team practical strategies to work with straight away, while the fuller picture is still being built.
A Comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan follows, within 6 months, once a full Functional Behaviour Assessment has been completed. It goes into more depth on what's driving the behaviour and sets out a longer-term plan the whole support team can work from.
Plan Implementation
A plan is only useful if the people around the participant know how to use it. Once a Behaviour Support Plan is in place, the team trains support workers and family on the strategies, then reviews how implementation is going and adjusts as needed. This isn't a one-off handover, it's checked in on over time to make sure strategies are actually being used consistently and are working.