Managing challenging behaviour

Managing someone with challenging behaviour can be a barrier when you’re working in the health and social care profession. Although every case is different, it’s important to know how to stay calm and collected when faced with these occurrences.

Some of the issues can arise because of an individual’s inability to communicate with you adequately. Communication can be more difficult for a number of reasons, including living with Dementia, injury to the head and brain, substance and alcohol abuse, mental health illnesses and learning disabilities. It may also result from other factors, such as bereavement, anxiety or simply feeling that care workers are not listening or hearing.

Regardless of the issue, effective management can help to resolve these challenges experienced by the individual and care worker. Here are our top tips for managing challenging behaviour:

• Get to know the individual and their needs and wants. Knowing them well, and understanding what worries they may have, as well as what they like to do, will help you to build a strong relationship based on trust and respect

• Make sure the person feels valued and listened to and if the person can’t communicate verbally, ensure that they have ways of expressing their feelings to you

• Determine any environmental triggers such as noise or surroundings that might provoke challenging behaviour and intervene where possible. If you can recognise the warning signs early on then you may be able to prevent an onset of the challenging behaviour. For example, if being in a large group or an increase in noise levels is a trigger, you could arrange for them to be in smaller groups or receive one-to-one support

• Develop a list of coping strategies that can be implemented when the individual appears to be stressed

• Make sure you take advantage of training and support where possible

If you’re finding it difficult in the long term to manage a person’s behaviour or are worried about their welfare, then make sure to speak to your mentor or another employee who will be able to offer assistance.

How Nurse Plus can support you

We are committed to the welfare of our workforce and we are always happy to offer support where needed. Support can be offered in a number of ways including job shadowing, mentoring, training and regular one to one catch-ups.

To find out more about the opportunities we have to offer, take a look at the benefits of working for Nurse Plus, which include flexible hours, free training in line with the Care Certificate, excellent weekly pay, staff benefits and a refer a friend scheme or visit our jobs pages to find a position in your local area.