Treatment and Management of Challenging Behaviours in Residential Settings

Aspects of the treatment and management of challenging behaviour were investigated among 500 adults with intellectual disabilities receiving various forms of residential supports. The present results indicated that: (1) 53% of participants were reported to have shown at least one 'moderately serious' or 'severe' form of challenging behaviour in the previous month; (2) the most commonly employed management strategies were physical restraint (used with 44% of people showing challenging behaviour), sedation (35%), seclusion (20%) and mechanical restraint (3%); (3) the most commonly employed 'treatment strategies' were goal setting within individual programme plans (used with 62% of people showing challenging behaviour), anti-psychotic medication (49%), written intervention programmes (23%) and written behaviourally orientated intervention programmes (15%); and (4) factors identified through logistic regression analyses to be associated with the use of specific treatment and management strategies included personal characteristics of the person with intellectual disabilities (e.g. age and diagnosis of autism), resources (e.g. type of accommodation, cost of provision and staffing levels), the organization of resources (e.g, planning of support to residents) and the nature of the challenging behaviour (e.g. more sustained episodes of challenging behaviour).