New challenging behaviour charter launched

I noticed the item below (with links and images added here) on the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities Forum. It makes a very important point:

"The label 'challenging behaviour', has become misused over time."

My worry is that this finding is not just relevant to individuals with learning disability and their families, but other groups.

People with dementia, especially in the latter stages can present with behaviour that is increasingly described as 'challenging'. Care facilities are being commissioned and designed with the requisite care, staffing and environment to provide care for people in an effort to provide the highest quality and standard of nursing care.

To some extent these are distinct groups with specific needs. So the use of 'challenging' in one context obviously has a different currency and meaning in another. Whilst the practise and care environments may be separate, is there no place where cross-over may occur? I remember a local RCN meeting presentation that highlighted the demographic trend of dementia within the learning disability population.

To start a painting we often start with a wash:
efficiency - puts a broad brush in the hand.

As we aspire to provide person-centred care
what type of brush do you hold?

We paint with the words we use - take care.

---

The Challenging Behaviour - National Strategy Group has launched a charter to promote the human rights of individuals with learning disabilities who are perceived as challenging.

Up to 27,000 people with learning disabilities in the UK may have been given a label of challenging behavior, resulting in this group of people being - stigmatised and socially excluded denied the right to ordinary lives in the community, to education, recreation and employment placed in institutional settings a long way from home and families.

The label challenging behaviour, has become misused over time. Rather than being used as a term to encourage carers and professionals to understand the underlying reasons for a person's behaviour, 'challenging behaviour' has been used as a diagnostic label, viewed as being intrinsic to the person.

The Challenging Behaviour - National Strategy Group want people (and organisations) to sign up to the charter to register their support for the principles it contains and to commit to action to improve the lives of children and adults who are labelled as challenging. We need as many people as possible to support us, so please ask your friends and family to sign up too.

To read the charter, including an easy read version visit:

http://www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk/

ENDS

What is the Challenging Behaviour - National Strategy Group?

The Challenging Behaviour - National Strategy Group (CB-NSG) was launched on November 7th 2008. The CB-NSG is a key national group to address the needs of children, young people and adults with learning disabilities whose behaviour is perceived as challenging.

Members of the CB-NSG include family carers, representatives from the Department of Health, Royal College of Psychiatrists, British Psychological Society, Royal College of GP's, NHS Trusts, researchers, service providers and a range of practitioners, regulators, commissioners and third sector representatives. The group is action and outcome focused and comes together twice a year to monitor progress, share best practice and develop coordinated action plans.

What is challenging behaviour?

"Behaviour can be described as challenging when it is of such an intensity, frequency, or duration as to threaten the quality of life and/or the physical safety of the individual or others and it is likely to lead to responses that are restrictive, aversive or result in exclusion." (Challenging behaviour - a unified approach; RCPsych, BPS, RCSLT, 2007)

Challenging behaviour is things like hitting your own head against a wall, pulling curtains down or pulling someone's hair. Often people do this because they cannot communicate with words and they have little or no choice and control over what is happening to them. How do I find out more?

To find out more about the Challenging Behaviour National Strategy Group, please refer to 'All change' the Summer issue of 'Challenge' today. This issue focuses on the work of the National Strategy Group and includes articles from Dr Roger Banks (Consultant in the Psychiatry of Learning Disabilities), Jackie Edwards (Family carer) and Bob Tindall (United Response).


'Challenge' is the newsletter of the Challenging Behaviour Foundation and is available free of charge by emailing: info at thecbf.org.uk or downloading from www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk

Helen Marron
The Challenging Behaviour Foundation
Email: info at thecbf.org.uk