Referrals to the PBS team are allocated based on need, with either interim or comprehensive support being offered. Typically, interim support benefits those aiming to manage temporary difficult situations or modest areas of need, whereas comprehensive support offers longer term strategy planning and involvement for those with more complex needs. 

Positive Behaviour Support does not assume that a behaviour will cease. Its aim is reducing the likelihood of it happening, although behaviour can stop. However, this does not mean that the Positive Behaviour Support should be withdrawn. It should be reviewed and adapted to meet the new circumstances. 

We achieve this by:

• Understanding all behaviour happens for a reason 
• Adopting a person-centred approach
• Collaborative working & open communication
• Adhering to current standards of care and legislation
• Advocating for the least restrictive environment and support possible
• Producing PBS Plans, Behavioural guidance documents and progress reports
• Reflective practice
• Ongoing training (including bespoke training written for the person)
• Recognising potential, identifying successes and celebrating achievements
• Being goal orientated
• Valuing safety
• Being evidence-led
• Replacing behaviours of concern with helpful alternatives& skill building

Our aspiration is to support people to meet their goals in a safe and productive manner, without relying on behaviours of concern, which they can replicate across settings and build upon long-term.

We take an assets-based approach towards supporting people with mental health needs. This means we focus on their strengths, what they can do and what they aspire to. We follow the recovery model, helping to build resilience and encouraging people to set goals so that they can move forward.   This person-centred approach, begins at the referral stage and continues across the individual’s journey, we facilitate effective change and offer carefully considered therapeutic risk taking which promotes independence and ensures the person’s quality of life remains high. 

Our dedicated mental health provision offers individuals: 

• Opportunities to reintegrate back into their community 
• Acquire skills 
• Build tolerances 
• Refine coping strategies 
• Actively engage with staying well plans 
• Develop independence in a supported living setting 

Having the right staff with the right skills, experience and understanding is paramount to providing the best care and support. Our mental health teams benefit from robust training so they have the specialist skills to support and understand individuals. They also benefit from utilising the expertise of our in-house Positive Behaviour Support Team who offer bespoke training and support in identifying person centred solutions to enable individuals to have a better quality of life. 

Our approach is person-centred and values driven, utilising our in-house expertise, Positive Behaviour Support Team, to ensure each person’s transition back into their community is well planned, involving family members and practitioners in each step which in turn, improves the quality of life, allowing people to lead satisfying and valued lives in a home within their community.

People who choose to have their support provided by Bethphage will receive PBS support and ongoing assessment, plus specially trained and skilled staff teams to maximize success and avoid readmission to hospital.

In adopting this approach, our aim is to ensure that more people will successfully transition home and re-engage with their communities, families, friends, and achieve their own goals in a safe and supportive environment.

A complex process, which Bethphage is in collaboration with others:

• Completes comprehensive assessments identifying how and when the person’s needs can be best met as well as gaining a thorough understanding of any behaviours of concern and incident history
• Meets with the person to establish their goals and preferences
• Produces and reviews plans and strategies to support the individual in a new environment
• Recruits, inducts, trains and invests in staff with the right values and attitudes to work in these locations
• Supports discharge and transition
• Provides ongoing support and involvement – post-transition

Autistic people may act in a different way to other people 

Autistic people may: 

• Find it hard to communicate and interact with other people 
• Find it hard to understand how other people think or feel 
• Find things like bright lights or loud noises overwhelming, stressful or uncomfortable 
• Get anxious or upset about unfamiliar situations and social events 
• Take longer to understand information 
• Do or think the same things over and over. 

People with Autism may experience difficulties with some or all of the following areas:

• Social communication
• Social interaction
• Social imagination

As part of a person’s ‘assessment’ process, people’s individual needs are established and tailored support is identified to support people with a range of sensory, behavioural, and communication needs, both by utilising skills from our own staff, the PBS team and through collaborative working with others.

Bethphage benefits from ongoing liaison with social work, medical professionals, speech and language therapists, psychologists, and advocacy to the benefit of those being supported, and their families, whilst ongoing training ensures Bethphage staff are skilled, providing comprehensive and safe provision to those accessing our services.

 Support includes:

• Appropriate communication strategies, such as Makaton, gesture, Pecs/images, objects, of reference, social stories, drawing, written or spoken words
• Sensory diets
• Routine, structure and predictability, such as calendars, wall charts, daily schedules, and planners
• Functional tasks and activities with a clear purpose and product
• Various activities including – physical activities or exercise
• Person-Centred approach
• Well suited environments
• Skilled, consistent and competent staff
• Compatible peers.

We have an Assessment and Transition Service based in North Shropshire that provides specialist support and care to people with learning disabilities and/or Autism. 

The service is a registered care home that provides an opportunity for people to have a period of assessment, which is often as a result of: 

• Placement breakdown, or risk of 
• People returning from out county placements (often from long stay institutions) 
• People who need a period of assessment with a team, experienced in supporting adults with behavioural support needs whose role is to fully understand a person’s support needs, develop a move on plan, support them to move to their new provision and ensure a successful transition 

Bethphage are focused on person-centred care and encourage every person we support to contribute to their own care and support plans to their own care and support plans. 

What makes Bethphage’s service different? 

Our professional, qualified in-house Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) team are available to guide and support the team and the person being supported; they carry out comprehensive PBS assessments, analyse data from incidents to determine causes and triggers for the behaviours, which informs PBS plans.  

PBS plans focus on reducing incidents and risk and increasing positive outcomes, which lead to greater independence and improved quality of life, enabling the person to reach their full potential, which is determined through scientific analysis.