In this bulletin, we look at another idea from the research about positive behaviour support.

We will look at understanding:

• how the environment can affect a person with disability

• what support a person with disability needs in their environment.

People with disability experience barriers.

A barrier is something that stops you from doing something you:

• need to do
• want to do.

A barrier could be:

• physical, for example not having a ramp to get into a building

• social, for example being told you can’t take part because you’re a person with disability.

When the environment isn’t supporting what someone needs, they might show behaviours of concern.

Behaviours of concern are things someone does that might put:

• themselves in danger
• other people in danger.

This is how a person with disability might communicate that something in their environment isn’t supporting what they need.

It is important to try to understand the experiences of:

• people with disability
• their family and carers.

This can help you think about:

• the barriers that affect people with disability
• what they need.

You can also think about the following questions.

How do the people around a person with disability support what they need?

For example, their family and carers.

Are the people around a person with disability supporting what they need across the day?

Do people need to do more assessments, to better understand what a person with disability needs?

Assessments can help to work out:

• what a person with disability needs
• how to support them.

Are there situations that make a person with disability:

• feel good?
• handle their emotions about the environment well?

For example, you can think about:

• where the person with disability was
• who they were with
• how other people were supporting them
• what the people around them weren’t doing.

Are there situations where:

• a person with disability doesn’t feel good?
• things don’t go well?

You can think about:

• where the person with disability was
• who they were with
• what the people around them were doing
• what the people around them weren’t doing.

Thinking about these questions is an important part of positive behaviour support.

In our next bulletin, we’ll look at another of the 12 ideas from the positive behaviour support research.

The next idea is about understanding a person’s right to make their own decisions.