Intensive Behaviour Support Teams
Fact sheet
Intensive Behaviour Support Teams fact sheetDisability Services Queensland's Intensive Behaviour Support teams work closely with people with a disability, their families and carers to improve their capacity to bring about positive changes in their own lives.
These teams provide services with a focus on prevention, skill-building and positive behaviour support.
Services are tailored to meet a person's individual needs and preferences and are based on a comprehensive behaviour assessment.
In supporting adults with a disability who exhibit challenging behaviour, the teams will develop strategies to achieve short-term behaviour change as well as promoting improvements in the long-term capacity of the person, their family and carers.
What do we mean by 'challenging behaviour'?
The term 'challenging behaviour'1 is used to describe the behaviour displayed by a person with a disability that has the potential to harm themselves and those around them.
To understand why a person is exhibiting challenging behaviour, their history and the environment in which they live and the supports they receive must be considered.
Disability Services Queensland defines challenging behaviour as:
"Culturally abnormal behaviour(s) of such intensity, frequency or duration that the physical safety of the person or others is likely to be placed in serious jeopardy, or behaviour which is likely to seriously limit use of, or result in the person being denied access to, ordinary community facilities."
What is intensive behaviour support?
The work of the Intensive Behaviour Support teams is based on three central goals:
- facilitating and promoting the prevention of challenging behaviour
- encouraging the development of natural and informal community-based responses to the needs of people who exhibit challenging behaviour
- identifying, providing and coordinating formal behaviour support and intervention services.
Disability Services Queensland Intensive Behaviour Support teams provide a flexible service that supports both adults who exhibit challenging behaviours and their families, carers and service providers.
Some services are focused on the specific needs of the person with a disability. Other services, such as consultancy and education services, aim to increase the capacity of the community to support the person with a disability who exhibits challenging behaviour.
The Intensive Behaviour Support teams provide the following services:
- information regarding challenging behaviour and related issues
- intensive behaviour support and intervention, which includes behaviour assessment and development of a comprehensive support plan
- direct intervention through the delivery of specialised services, for example counselling, training or psychological services
- consultation and outreach for a short period when support is needed by people with a disability, families, carers or service providers outside an Intensive Behaviour Support team's geographical service boundary
- education and training to support families and service providers and build the capacity of the community to provide support, including seminars, workshops and parent training.
Who is eligible to receive assistance through the Intensive Behaviour Support teams?
To be eligible for assistance through the Intensive Behaviour Support Program, you will need to meet the criteria outlined in the Disability Services Queensland Eligibility Policy1.
You must be one of the following:
- an Australian citizen
- a permanent Australian resident
- a Temporary Protection Visa holder
- a New Zealand citizen who arrived in Australia prior to 26 February 2001
- a member of a family on a work or study visa sponsored by the Australian Government.
You must also live in Queensland and have a disability that:
- is attributable to an intellectual, psychiatric, cognitive, neurological, sensory or physical impairment or a combination of impairments
- results in a substantial reduction of the person's capacity in one or more of the following areas: communication; social interaction, learning, mobility, or self care/management
- results in you needing support and
- is permanent or likely to be permanent (and may or may not be of a chronic episodic nature) and
- manifests itself before the age of 65.
To be eligible for assistance from an Intensive Behaviour Support team you must also:
- have a disability that is permanent or likely to be permanent, resulting in a significant and ongoing level of need for support
- have a substantial history of challenging behaviour and high and complex behaviour support needs
- live in a community-based setting with a support network of family, carers, or service providers who are able to assist in the implementation of behaviour support plans
- be aged at least 18 years or older.
Referrals
Referrals may be made directly to the team in the region where the person with a disability lives.
The Intensive Behaviour Support teams work in specific regions. Please see the fact sheet for a list of those regions.
Further information
- Name:
- Michael Keates
- Telephone:
- (07) 3008 5132
- Email:
- michael.keates@disability.qld.gov.au
1(Emerson, E., Challenging Behaviour, analysis and intervention in people with severe intellectual disabilities, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2001).
Last updated June 2008