Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) has been the go-to model for helping people whose behavior is interfering with services for the past thirty years. Although there are many definitions of PBS currently in circulation, Gore et al.’s recent definition aimed to compile the essential components of PBS in a way that would be helpful in informing future advancements in research, policy, and services.
Gore and colleagues emphasize that PBS is not a single therapeutic philosophy, approach, or treatment but rather a multi-component framework for developing an understanding of challenging behavior. It is used to create socially valid interventions that improve quality of life outcomes for the person and their caregivers. It revolves around the assessment of the general social & physical context in which the behavior occurs. Visit Personal Health Care for more info.
Benefits of positive behavioral support
Principles PBS offers successful person-centered support for individuals whose behavior is challenged by fusing the technology of behavioral intervention with the principles of normalization, human rights, and self-determination. Most importantly, these principles guide not only how this technology is applied but also the goals it is intended to accomplish.
Therefore, PBS seeks to improve the quality of life for both individuals who exhibit challenging behavior & those who support them as an intervention and as an outcome. PBS interventions are also constructional because one of their main goals is to broaden the individual’s opportunities for positive life experiences and their repertoire of adaptive behaviors. On the other hand, a values-led approach rejects the use of punitive or aversive interventions because of their incompatibility.
Values
- The context of improved quality of life, inclusion, participation, and the defense and upholding of critical social roles is crucial for the prevention and reduction of challenging behavior.
- Constructional approaches to intervention design reject harsh and constrictive methods while enhancing stakeholder opportunities and skills.
- Participation from stakeholders helps to develop, implement, and validate procedures for assessment and intervention.
Theory and Evidence Base
- An awareness that problematic behavior arises to fulfill vital purposes for individuals
- The main application of behavior analysis’s constructional principles and techniques to evaluate and promote behavior change
- the secondary application of additional evidence-based, complementary strategies to assist systemic behavior change at several levels
Process
- A data-driven methodology for all phases of decision-making
- To guide function-based interventions, functional assessment
- Interventions with multiple components to manage behavior (reactively) and alter behavior (proactively)
- Long-term monitoring, implementation assistance, and evaluation of interventions
To guarantee that assessments, interventions, and results have meaning, PBS emphasizes stakeholder participation and considers the behavior and well-being of stakeholders (such as paid and family caregivers). Therefore, PBS is “done with” rather than “done to” the individual and those who assist them.