Complex Needs and Challenging Behaviour

Empowered Lives had worked with many clients who have been deemed hard to place or who have been labeled as challenging, we believe that everybody can live in the community with the right support and housing.

 

When we support a person with complex needs we see beyond the problems and the labels and recognise that we're dealing with someone with aspirations, needs, and hopes, just like the rest of us.

 

 

We understand that sometimes the person may find it difficult to communicate through speech, and so we work hard and find other ways of ‘hearing’ what they are saying. People with more complex learning disabilities, in particular, may find it difficult to communicate what is important to them. In those cases, we acknowledge that their behaviour becomes the clearest indicator of how they are feeling. Unhappiness, frustration, anxiety, and fear can be expressed as aggression or self-harm. All behaviour, even challenging behaviour, is communication. We have found that if we listen to it and respond to it appropriately, the chances are that those behaviours deemed challenging will reduce; with many success stories now and in the past it is clear that this approach can work for many people.

 

When we work with people with challenging behaviour, we work closely with everyone concerned to establish what their behaviour means, and we adapt our approach accordingly. Our successful supported living services recognise this, and strive to be person-centred, we concentrate on the person’s likes and dislikes, trying to understand what they want to do in their lives, and we respond accordingly. The person is supported to be in control, making all the key decisions, including where they want to live and who they want to live with. However diverse and variable the needs of the individual, we support people to live a full a life as they wish within their community

 

Empowered Lives fully understand that while supported living services can support people with complex needs in non-institutional and non-restrictive settings, it is difficult, specialist work and requires additional skills above those one would normally expect in support staff.  We know that untrained care and support workers, never mind how well-intentioned they are, will not be able to perform to the necessary standards. Rather, services like these need staff who combine a fundamental respect for the people they are supporting with the skill that can only come from experience and ongoing training, and by us maintaining a level of investment. We understand that it is not enough to train a team and then leave them to it. In particular, it is important that staff are trained to implement appropriate strategies to respond to challenging behaviours, as agreed with the supported person and their family, We focus on getting things right and only by investing in staff training and development can this focus translate into positive outcomes. 

 

Empowered Lives aims to recruit the best-skilled team members some who are university graduates in subjects such as psychology or social work and/or have vocational qualifications such as the NVQ Diplomas in Health and Social Care. Our carefully selected team members are kind, caring, dedicated and passionate about providing the highest level of support to our clients, and have a thorough understanding of individuals’ diverse needs and backgrounds.

 

 

Excellent People = Excellent Service

Our team members understand the significance of gaining the trust of our clients and

all advocate the importance of building platonic relationships on grounds of mutual respect.

It is evident within our Supported Housing Schemes that we work in that these core values

contribute considerably towards happy, content living conditions for our clients.

All of our team members are committed to continual professional development as

a lifelong pursuit. Through fostering a learning culture we ensure that we provide exciting,

developmental and rewarding opportunities for our team members, which in turn solicits

dedication, loyalty and long-term commitment to our cause.