Name – Amina Rage

Student ID – 736370
Tutor – Christy Udoh
Unit 27 – Dealing with
challenging behaviour in H&SC

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Content’s page

P1……………………………………………………. (p.g 2 – 5)

P2…………………………………………………….(p.g 6 – 10)

P3…………………………………………………….(p.g 11 – 14)

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P1 – Describe the characteristics and causes of challenging behaviour
Intro – For this part of my assignment, I will be describing and explaining the
characteristics and causes of challenging behaviour. Challenging behaviour is
referred to any verbal, no-verbal or physical behaviour exhibited by a person which
makes it difficult to deliver good care safety. This can include from having an
outburst of aggression to dealing with resistant type behaviours which can be difficult
for anyone involved. Dealing with challenging conduct is a primary focus for
professionals working in the Health and Social Care sectors, making challenging
behaviours a common occurrence.
It is particularly important that those dealing with challenging behaviours are aware
that there is always an underlying reason for an individual’s outburst and an
understanding the function as well as finding the trigger, is key to managing it in
positive and calm manner. During their day-to-day routines, workers may encounter
a wide variety of behaviours which can substantially, and adversely, affect the quality
of life of those involved. Therefore, professionals carry a vital duty of care to do the
best that they can under their power possible, which is important as this helps to
prevent or minimise any harm that may occur as a result of challenging behaviours.
Examples of Challenging behaviours and their triggers
Verbal abuse – Verbal abuse is an example of challenging behaviour as it an act of
violence in the form of communication that decreases one’s self-confidence in
themselves and adds to feelings of helplessness. In a verbally abusive situation,
words are used to control, attack, and inflect harm on another individual which often
involves inflicting psychological violence. There are numerous examples of
behaviours that are verbally abusive such as shouting, swearing, racist, sexist or
offensive speech as well as name calling verbal abuse which includes blaming and
intimidation, both being obvious and not. Verbal abuse is centred about controlling
the other person and often those who verbally abuse others typically tell their victims
what to think and how to feel if they refuse to understand or see the victim’s point of
view. An instance, if a nurse told an individual that they needed to wait in the waiting
room and instead of doing so, the individual uses a threatening tone of voice nurse
to abusively convince the nurse for service is considered a form of verbal abuse
since his actions can be viewed as threatening towards the nurse.
The Triggers of verbal abuse can include:
- Having a lack of adequate communication skills can trigger an individual to
resort to individuals verbally abusing someone with the goal to control them.
- Having a lack of self-awareness can sometimes lead people involved in
situations are not aware of the people around them to yell, scream at others.
- Poor/lack of role models: Those who have poor or no role models in their lives
may learn or adapt to poor ways to communicate with others, without realising
that name calling, yelling, and insulting others are inappropriate methods of
communication.

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Non –verbal abuse - Non-verbal abuse refers to any kind of behaviour that is
intimidating, condescending, harassing or threatening, without the need to say a
word. In other words, a wide range of belittling gestures or body language can
become abusive when used to disrespect another person such as smirking, rolling
their eyes, whispering, ignoring someone when they speak and violating personal
space or hand on hip. These examples mentioned are often with sinister intentions
and passive or passive aggressive power displays which can be difficult to identify.
Someone’s hand gestures can particularly cause offence as they are usually passive
aggressive. An example of non-verbal abuse in a H&SC setting is if a young adult
were to give a nurse a rude hand gesture and rolled their eyes, this could be
considered non-verbal abuse as it would be offensive to do so. As a result of this,
this may cause emotional pain towards the nurse as this form of non-verbal abuse
can make the professional doubt themselves as a nurse and may have a short-term
impact on their lives moving forward.
The Triggers of non-verbal can include:
- Being spoken to in a disrespectful or rude manor can result to an individual
self -esteem to decrease and feeling of hurt from receiving the bad treatment.
As a consequence, this causes the individual to keep their distance away from
others around them, confiding in themselves as they don’t want to experience
a similar treatment to reoccur.
- Passive aggressive power that is expressed in a way that belittles someone
as their indirect expressions with sarcasm and insults in a negative way can
cause the other person to feel unpleasant and unvalued.
- Purposely neglecting or giving some silent treatment can lead to the individual
questioning what they did wrong themselves, if someone is choosing to
deliberately ignore you or refuse to acknowledge their presence.

Physical abuse – This form of challenging behaviour refers to when someone

deliberately goes out of their way to hurt or injure another person with the intention to
inflict harm on endanger that person. Domestic abuse rarely starts with physical
assault; perpetrators will resort to physical abuse when they feel they are being
challenged. Some examples of physical abuse include assault of others, biting,
spitting, choking, any form of violence, and in rare cases, can lead to murder. In
most physical abuse cases, children are typically the main victims of physical abuse
and this may be the case since they are generally viewed as vulnerable or an ‘easy
target’ however this could also depend on the condition and what position the child is
in that makes them vulnerable to such direct abuse. An example of physical abuse
taking place in a Health and Social Care setting is if an individual shoved a Social
worker due to a difference of opinions, this is physical abuse.

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The Triggers of Physical abuse can include:
- Pain and/or discomfort as a result of illness: As their medical problem can
cause them to experience pain and discomfort and may be unable to express
these concerns amongst careers which can lead to this reoccurring.
- Drug and Alcohol abuse can cause escalated argument which can lead to
such argument turning violent and aggressive to occur.
- Certain individuals can be a trigger themselves as they are initially a target for
a person to attack as seeing them will provoke and lead to physically abusing
them.

Self-destructive behaviour – This challenging behaviour is when someone does

something that is certain to cause self-harm, whether its physical or emotional. Self-
destructive behaviour is mainly caused by childhood trauma, via physical and sexual
abuse as well as showing a link with being raised under disrupted parental care
which can typically lead to behaviours such as a lack of realization of healthy coping
mechanisms. Some self-destructive behaviours are more obvious than others such
as attempting suicide, impulsive and risky sexual behaviour, overusing dugs and
alcohol and self-injury such as hair pulling, burning and cutting. However there are
subtle forms of self-sabotage that professionals working in the H&SC should pay
attention to as this may be a form of self-sabotage, examples of these are :
Changing your self to please others, clinging onto someone who shows no interest in
you, engaging in alienating or aggressive behaviour that pushes people away and
walling in self-pity. Despite the severity and frequency of these behaviours varying
from person to person, they all cause problems and can be difficult to confront when
you notice these signs of self-sabotage let alone deal with.
The Triggers of Self-destructive behaviour can include:
- Having an unhealthy coping mechanism that put oneself at risk however puts
them at ease to calm down and relax or to recover from challenging
behaviour.
- Mental health can also be trigger of self-destructive behaviour as the negative
impact on the mind contributes to the performance of the body as they take
self-pity as a result of an incapability in expressing or handling their true and
deepest feelings, due to an existing low-self-esteem.
- A final trigger that may cause self-destructive behaviour is when an individual
experiences big changes in their life that can have an effect to their self-
esteem, leading them to experience a difficult adjustment in settling in. Apart
of the process of new environments, making new changes in one’s life can
causes in feelings anxious If they are not alerted in advance can cause them
to feel frustrated, and as a response, the individual may resort to self-
destructive behaviours.

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Illegal behaviour – This type of challenging behaviour refers to a behaviour in which
is lawfully unallowed and is discouraged by the government. Illegal, illegitimate,
unlawful, illicit and criminal are all examples of words that describe actions that are
not in accord with the law. Some of the main reasons someone would engage in
illegal (criminal) behaviours commonly include greed, jealousy, anger, revenge of
pride. However, some people decide to commit illegal behaviours yet carefully pre-
plan everything in advance to increase gain and decrease the risk of getting caught.
The desire for lower control or revenge often leads to some individuals engaging in
violent illegal behaviours (acts) such as assaults, rapes and even murder. To add on,
this idea of biological factors has also been proven as to why individuals (typically in
their mid-twenties) associate with illegal behaviour. For instance, a part or the brain
called the prefrontal cortex that is responsible for self-control can be argued to be
highly influential in reason to illegal acts. This is because individuals who exhibit anti-
social behaviour may have an underdeveloped or damaged prefrontal cortex.
However, as this part of the brain does not completely develop until reaching mid-
20s, this may explain illegal behaviour amongst adolescence.

The Triggers of illegal behaviour can include:

- From a sociological perspective, inadequate primary socialisation within
families can trigger illegal behaviours amongst family members. In other
words, if children are poorly socialised into society’s norms and values, this
increases the chance for them to engage in illegal behaviour as some people
do not have the means to achieve society’s aims and so choose to turn to
illegitimate means and commit illegal behaviour.
- Negative social environment: Who we surround d ourselves with can greatly
influence ad trigger individuals to committing illegal behaviour, just as being in
a high-crime neighbourhood can increase our chances of turning to crime
ourselves. However, being in the presence of criminals are not the only way
our environment can affect our behaviours. Just by living in poverty can
increase the likelihood of being involved in illegal behaviours. This idea that
when individuals are under the stress to achieve material success and will
resort to illegal behaviour.
- Adverse childhood experiences: Parents are usually the most important
people in their children’s lives; therefore, their views and behaviours can have
a good or bad influence on their children’s behaviour, including illegal
behaviour. Children who are raised in particularly bad situations are at an
increased risk for illegal behaviour in both their juvenile and adult years. For
instance, if a child from a very young age experienced abuse or neglect from
their parent, increases the child’s risk for committing illegal behaviour.

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P2 – Explain how legislation/guidance applies to challenging behaviour:

Intro – In this part of my assignment, I will be describing and explaining how

legislation and guidance applies to challenging behaviour. In H&SC, Health
professionals have a duty of care to their patients to ensure that they must take
responsible steps to avoid acts or omissions that are likely to cause foreseeable
harm to the individuals by employing a suitable standard of care. To do this, Health
professionals work within the boundaries of policies, legislations as well as codes of
practices.
Conventions, legislations, and regulations:
The Human Rights Act – The Human Rights Act is a piece of legislation passed in
1998 which provides a set list of human rights which everyone is entitled to such as
freedom of speech, education, the right to life and healthcare. Everyone is entitled to
these rights and this legislation is in place so that people are aware what they their
entitlements initially as well as the consequences if someone decides to take their
rights away from them. This law also means that you can defend your rights in the
UK courts and that public organisations – including the Police, the Government and
local councils – must treat everyone equally with dignity, fairness and respect.
How does the Human Rights Act apply to Challenging behaviour?
 The Human Rights Act applies directly to challenging behaviour as this act
provides every single human with a set of rights and this includes those who
may show or have challenging behaviour, this applies to all individuals
whether they are a merely a child or an elderly. This relates to individuals with
challenging behaviour since they are at risk of having their rights taken away
from them, in particular the rights to freedom of expressions as their way of
expression may be disruptive or offend the people around them without the
intention of doing so.

The Children Act – The Children’s Act (2004)’s ultimate purpose is to make UK a
safer place for children and young people, this act also enabled the creation of the
Children’s Commissioners as well as each local authority needing to appoint a
director of children’s services. Some of the key points of this Act was to initially
ensure that children are being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieve as much
as possible, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being. This
Act provides guidance on definitions of child neglect and abuse, the roles and
responsibilities individuals have in regard to the protection of children what action

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agencies should take to ensure the protection of children, requirements for the local
safeguarding boards and the process for serious case reviews.

How does the Children’s Act apply to Challenging behaviour?

 The Children’s Act helps those with challenging behaviour as it helps to
protect every child, and those with challenging behaviour may be vulnerable.
This is because children who display challenging behaviour may be at an
increased risk of experiencing abuse since those who care for them may get
frustrated at some point and as a consequence, take their anger out on them.
They are also increasingly vulnerable as well as many other children as they
may not be able to communicate what is happening to them as their sis a
possibility that some children are not capable of identifying someone is
showing abusive behaviour towards them, which leads to individuals to take
advantage of this.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child – This convention is a worldwide piece
of legislation and an agreement setting out the political, economic, social, civil and
cultural rights of every child no matter who they are and regardless of their region,
race or abilities. It contained a set of rights that must be followed to protection
children and they are also required to meet he basic needs of children as well as
helping them reach their fullest potential, providing multiple rights such as the rights
to life, the right to education, the right to an adequate standard of living and the rights
to express their opinions and have them listened to etc. A key feature of this
Convention is that through this establishment in place, the convention changed the
way children are viewed and treated i.e., as human beings with a set of rights
instead of as passive objects of charity and care.
How does the Convention on the Rights of the Child apply to Challenging
behaviour?
 The Convention on the Rights of the Child helps those with challenging
behaviour as It ensures that they are being treated quality with dignity no
matter their abilities and how difficult their challenging behaviour may appear.
This convention also ensures that children’s basic needs are being met and
despite that they have challenging behaviour, they are still supported, helped
and encouraged by professionals around them in order to meet their full
potential. An example of this would be the right to express their opinions and
have these listened to and, where suitable, aced open. Moreover, this
protects children as despite that they have challenging behaviour, their
expressions and opinions will not be ignored or dismissed, due the
establishment of this convention.

The Care Standards Act – The Care Standards Act is a piece of legislation in
traduced to regulate and to ensure that agencies/providers were competent in their

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duty of care and to also develop a level playing field for all service providers
including children’s homes, independent hospitals, nursing homes, residential care
homes and a variety of care institutions by regulating, inspecting, and reviewing
services in agreement with the Act. In simple terms this Act sets out the way in which
health and social care services must aim to treat their patients with this act focusing
on the safety, well-being, dignity as well as the quality of life of service users.
How does the Care Standards Act apply to Challenging behaviour?
 The Care Standards Act directly applies to challenging behaviour as it
protects them by ensuring that they are receiving adequate quality of care,
despite their challenging behaviour, this may be done through career and care
plan assessment in order to make sure that they are being provided with
excellent care personal to them and that their needs are being met. This Act
also related to challenging behaviour since the challenging behaviour
individual’s display is typically caused by a …

White Paper – The White Paper was an act is which aimed to improve services with
the following four principles: independence, rights, choice and inclusion. In other
words, this paper was a strategy set out to support the government’s new vision and
individuals with learning disabilities. This Act attempts to improve their lives through
these things in place for those with learning disabilities, disabled children and young
people. By doing so, this gives them more choice and control through supporting
carers, help with housing and employment, providing quality services and improving
health for those with learning disabilities
How does the White Paper apply to Challenging behaviour?
The White paper relates to people with challenging behaviour because the behaviour
in which tends to come because of a learning disability. This ensure that those who
has a learning disability’s risk of abuse and neglect is minimised for them and that
they get their rights adhered to, are included in society, are provided the opportunity
to have independence and are given choices in regard to their individuals health and
well-being.
Codes of practice
The NHS Constitution – The NHS constitution is a document which sets out the
objectives of the National Health Service, the rights and responsibilities of the
various parties involved in health care, such as staff, patients and trust boards, and
the guiding principles which help to govern the service. All NHS organisations and
other bodies supplying NHS services must have regard to the NHS constitution, and
the constitution itself must be renewed every ten years by the government. There are
four main section involved in the main sections to this code of practice which include
the principles that guide the NHS, NHS values, patient’s rights and responsibilities
and the staff rights and responsibilities.
How does the NHS Constitution apply to Challenging behaviour?

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The NHS constitution directly relates to individuals with challenging behaviour as
those who show challenging behaviour are highly likely to access NHS service on a
regular basis. They are at an advantage from this code of practice because staff are
pledged to ensure that their rights and adhered to such as the right to the refusal of
treatment, the right to dignity and respect, the right to make choices as well as the
right to privacy and confidentiality amongst many other things. Through this code of
practice, those who display challenging behaviour will benefit from NHS services as
they should be receiving adequate care and this code of practice will ensure that
they are in the care of NHS practitioners, having their needs met.

General Social care council of Conduct – The General Social care council of
Conduct is an independent regulatory body that regulates the social work education
and social work profession in England and is responsible for setting standards of
practice and conduct for social care workers and their employers, for regulating
social work education and training and for regulating the workforce. All of the training
that takes places under this code of conduct is linked to performance assessment
and staff can request courses in which they believe will help support them in their
daily role as a social worker. Some of the examples of the courses that make take
place for training social workers include, communication, assertiveness, managing
you manager and etc.
How does the General Social care council of Conduct apply to Challenging
behaviour?
The General Social care council of Conduct directly applies to challenging behaviour
because the professionals are trained through training programmes to overcome
challenging behaviour with the people that they are initially working with. BY doing
so. They can help to provide advice and support the for individuals who display
challenging behaviours and their families to help improve their behaviour. Another
way this relates to individuals with challenging behaviour is because professionals
will come into contact with individuals working in the health and social care sector on
a regular basis, they are also particularly vulnerable and may not always be capable
to make an accurate judgement on how trustworthy or safe individuals truly are.
Ofsted – Ofsted is the official government funded group who inspect and regulate
educational providers and childcare services in the UK. They inspect such places to
ensure that everything is being done to the proper standards such as learning,
teaching and the quality of services provided by teachers and will collect evidence to
support they have observed so that they can provide feedback on what teachers
may need to improve or work on. When visiting children’s services, Ofsted will
inspect them according to their four key values which include: Putting children and
learners first, behaving with integrity, achieving excellence, and valuing people’s
differences.
How does Ofsted apply to Challenging behaviour?
Ofsted believes that good behaviour is a necessary condition for learning and that
effective behaviour management is curtail, meaning that low-level disruption should

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not be tolerated, and pupil’s behaviour should not disrupt lessons or the daily life of
the school. Ofsted relates to individuals who display challenging behaviour because
they will access at least one of the services that Ofsted regulate, and their parents
would want to ensure that their children are attending a service with high quality. In
addition, the core values are essential as by putting children with challenging
behaviour first, they can receive the correct support that they need, which as a result
will diffuse the challenging behaviour.
Organisational Policies and Procedures
Organisational polices & Procedures – Organisational polices and procedures are
put in place to provide guidelines for decision making and for holding information so
that it remains private and confidential. Organisational polices and procedures are
committed to working with vulnerable people and those who may display challenging
behaviour and all staff are required to follow these procedures accordingly.
Implementing policies and procedures are an essential part of any organisation as
they ensure compliance with regulation and laws, provide guidance for decision
making and streamline internal processes.
Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that belong to every individual living
In this world, which are based on fundamental principles such as respect, dignity and
fairness. In all organisations, it is important that there is a human rights policy to
provide a basis of embedding the responsibility the human rights of others. Every
individual working in a n organisation has an individual moral duty not to violate
one’s personal dignity, however the government, has not just only a moral duty, but
also a legal duty to protect these rights to ensure that every person’s rights are not
being violated anyhow.
How does Organisational policies and procedures apply to Challenging
behaviour?
Organisational policies and procedures directly apply to challenging behaviour as
they ensure that all working staff are following the correct policies and procedures
within an organisation. Since complaints procedures are designed for when
someone complains, procedures are set up If someone with challenging behaviour to
help them, for instance, if a person who displays challenging behaviour offends
someone, then there will be a procedure to help both individuals. To add on, staff
training and development is there to also help staff to train and develop their skills,
so they are more capable of dealing with those with challenging behaviour so that
they know exactly how to ensure safety i.e. restrain. Human rights are in place to
ensure that everyone gets their rights to education, freedom, right to life, protection
of property and respect of privacy. These examples of rights can protect those who
display challenging behaviour as they can help point out what is right or wrong and
for example, if they are being abused, it is within their human rights to ensure that
they are being protecting with the whistle-blowing policy.

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P3 – Suggest strategies to minimise the effects of challenging behaviour in
health and social care:
Intro – In this part of my assignment, I will be suggesting strategies to minimise the
effects of challenging behaviour in health and social care. In H&SC settings,
challenging behaviour can arise on a day-to-day basis to almost rarely, but
challenging behaviour takes place in many different forms and health and social care
practitioners will inevitably experience challenging behaviour around then in their line
of work. It is important to know that when challenging behaviour is displayed or
arises by an individual, it can be dealt with a range of strategies that health
professional can use in order to minimise or diffuse challenging behaviours.
How to minimise the effects of challenging behaviour
Person-centred planning – Person-centred planning is typically used in a variety of
health and social care settings with service users from all ages from cradle to grace.
Person-centred planning is mainly about making the best changes in an individual’s
life and planning for the future to ensure that their future is pleasant and properly
planned. For example, this strategy is used in elderly care homes to provide the best
and upmost care for that individual and within families that have children of different
ages to ensure that they help parents to provide children with the best care possible
and it is used for those with physical impairments such as Down’s syndrome.
Person-centred planning can provide many positive benefits on an individual’s life for
example, this may help them improve their social skills, help with budgeting, being
comfortable in social environments, pursuing personal interests and many more.
Positive behaviour management – Positive behaviour managements involved the
ability to identify why an individual displays challenging behaviours, helping to
address this type of behaviour if it arises by promoting positive behaviour and what
may trigger them. This is done by reinforcing positive behaviour through
encouragements and praise so that staff/professionals are being positive with the
individual rather than endlessly being negative. To add on, professionals should also
focus on what people should and can do rather than what they lack to do and should
not be doing to help encourage and support them as well as posstively stimulating
them to want to show better, and positive behaviour. This particular strategy can be
utilized in many settings such as schools, however it works best for children who are
sometimes display challenging behaviour or have behavioural problems such as
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).
Effective communication – Effective communication is manly about understanding
emotions and the intention behind the information and data. The main role of

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communication in health and social care is to express ideas, perspectives, and
opinions. In every care setting communication is vital as if a set of information is
delivered incorrectly; members of the organisation may face a series of
miscommunication, interpreted information or assumptions which could later result to
a long series of negative consequences. An example of this would be if a social
worker came to interview you and used advanced vocabulary (also known as
jargon), the interviewee may feel confused and some cases lead to frustration – this
idea of using technical language can throw off the service user self-esteem, leaving
him/her intimidated further creating an uncomfortable environment. For
communication to be considered effective, professionals and service users need to
have the ability to clearly convey a message and to be able to listen carefully to what
is initially being said in a way that makes others feel heard and understood. Another
reason why it is important to use effective communication within Health and social
care settings is because practitioners have a duty to monitor a service user’s health
and to do so, the practitioner needs to be able to ask many questions, but in a
delicate yet sensitive way.
Anti-discriminatory Practice – This refers to treating an individual or group unfairly
because of a particular characteristic such as ethnic origin, skin colour, gender,
disability, age, nationality, sexuality, and religious belief. All organisations have a
responsibility and duty to ensure that policies are being in place which provide
guidance on the anti-discriminatory practice to ensure that nobody is experiencing
any sort of discrimination during work. For this reason, employees are encouraged
and should provide training sessions addressing anti-discriminatory practices to
employees to raise awareness and inform them about how they could deal with and
prevent discrimination from happening within the workplace. For example, through
this training taking place, all professionals in the organisation are working towards a
way in which respects the views, rights, and behaviour of people from minority
groups, and which celebrates their diversity.
Empowering and involving individuals – When empowering others, this may be a
social, psychological, cultural, or political process through in which individuals and
social groups are able to express their needs, present their concerns, devise
strategies for involvement in decision-making and achieve social, political and
cultural action in order to meet those needs. By empowering individuals and giving
them the power and authority to say or do things, this may in turn encourage people
to become more determined and promote independence. Involving individuals
however means that you are involving someone in things that involve them such as
about their health and well-being and decision-making. For example, a social worker
may use this strategy as a way of dealing with an adult showing self-harming
behaviour and self-destructive behaviour. By empowering the adult and involving
them in things that involve them such as visits, medication and etc, this may in turn
encourage them to stop harming themselves with these types of behaviours.

Using specific approaches & methods of intervention

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Providing active support – Active support is a person-centred approach which
aims to provide direct support. The primary reason behind active support is to make
sure that people with even the most significant disabilities have a daily, constant
support to be involved in a variety of opportunities and life activities of their personal
choice. The main outcome of active support is to increase independence, prove
more control and improve confidence. Consequently, providing active support can
decrease and diffuse challenging behaviour, particularly by improving people’s
quality of life: helping others to develop new skills, gain self-confidence and
experience choice and control. The first intervention that can used under this
approach is communicating and consulting with individuals. By using this
intervention as a method when dealing with challenging behaviour, this can support
and encourage the person to express their feelings so that the professionals gets an
understanding as to where the challenging behaviour may be coming from Another
intervention that can be used is seeking help – acknowledging and appreciating the
individual in seeking help with their challenging behaviour could indicate that the
individual is in a situation where they are in desperate need for help. Another
intervention that can used is Applying awards and/or sanctions – there could be
certain sanctions that could trigger the service user’s behaviour. For this reason
professionals should ensure that have an alternative sanction planned for the
individual with challenging behaviour that wont be as triggering as the previous
sanction, the same applies/goes for rewards.

Medication – Another specific approach that can be used is medication. H&SC

organisations such as care homes have the responsibility to ensure that the correct,
safe and proper use of medication and that the staff who are responsible for the
management and storage of medication are suitably trained and competent. This
approach can also be supported by. When dealing with residents displaying harmful
and destructive behaviour, professionals should ensure that their medication intake
is correct so they are receiving the correct dosage at the time recommended for
them as not providing the correct medication, can create problems for the resident
which can impact their behaviour, causing and leading them to harm themselves due
to any side effect. The first intervention that can be used under this approach is
applying medication. This can be applied to challenging behaviour as if person has
a mental health problem, such as depression, which may have caused them to resort
to challenging behaviour, then medication which is known to help treat that condition
may help them. Another intervention that can be applied to medication is judging
time and method appropriate to situation. As there are multiple medication used
for challenging behaviour, professionals need to know what medication is required or
needed for individuals by taking observations. By observing the individuals’
behaviour, the professional will gain an awareness on whether their behaviour is
severe enough for medication.
Psychotherapy – Psychotherapy is a type of therapy used to treat emotional
problems and mental health conditions. This type of therapy involves communicating
to a trained therapist either one-to-one, in a group or with your partner, enabling
specialists to look deeper into a person’s personal problems and any worries or

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concerns they may have and deal with habits, also specialist in dealing with a wide
range of disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. When dealing with
challenging behaviour, psychotherapy can be benefit those with challenging
behaviour as It can help control or eliminate the main cause for their challenging
behaviour so that the individual leaves therapy being able to function better,
increasing well-being and healing. The two interventions that can be used under this
approach is Communicating and consulting with individuals & seeking help. By
seeking help through attending psychotherapy can help those with challenging
behaviour as this type of therapy gives them a safe space to communicate and
consult their difficulties in both past and present life events and talking about difficult
life experiences may unfold and explain what might make them upset and angry,
resulting them to feel less angry or depressed. By constantly causing challenging
behaviour, it may get tiring for them to keep going on for the individual, therefore
seeking psychotherapy may be a good option for them to take some weight off their
shoulders.
Behaviour modification programmes& cognitive behavioural therapy – These
approaches are a treatment approach which aims to change people’s behaviour and
their thinking patterns. The initial purpose of these treatments is to substitute any
undesirable behaviours with positive and changed behaviours. These programmes
have been known to be quite successful in treating many disorders such as
disruptive behaviour, obsessive-compulsive disorder, hyperactive disorder,
separation anxiety and generalized anxiety disorders. As a social worker, I would
use these approaches to help residents to stop them from engaging in self-
destructive behaviour by helping them change their challenging behaviour and to
replace it with positive behaviour instead. For, example, I would teach them other
ways to release their self-destructive behaviour, for instance teaching them how
drawing or paining as an outlet, instead of hurting themselves. The two interventions
that can be used under this approach is Seeking help & Communicating and
consulting with individuals. By seeking help through either programme, this may
help them to overcome their problems in which initially causes them to display
challenging behaviour. Through communicating and consulting what activities they
are comfortable in engaging them in order modify their challenging behaviour and
their negative thinking patterns, this will encourage them to stop showing challenging
behaviours, teach the individual ways to deal with negative emotions better, which
may lead them to focus more on showing positive behaviours.

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Reference List
(1) – Annon name (2012), Challenging behaviour in young people, Social care
institute for excellence (SICE), Baker street, Watson House, London

(2) – Camhs (2018), Challenging behaviour in young people with a learning

disability, NHS Foundation Trust, Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

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