Psychiatric Bulletin (2007) 31: 400. doi: 10.1192/pb.31.10.400
© 2007 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Challenging Behaviour: A Unified Approach
College Report CR144, June 2007, Royal College of Psychiatrists, British Psychological Society & Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, £12.50, 80 pp
This report is the result of a joint working group of the learning
disability faculties of the British Psychological Society and the Royal
College of Psychiatrists, in consultation with the Royal College of Speech and
Language Therapists. The main focus is on adults who are vulnerable to
restrictive interventions and abuse as a consequence of their limited capacity
to make choices for themselves about where they live or work, and how they are
supported. Although it focuses primarily on adults with moderate to severe
learning disabilities, the broad principles outlined are applicable to
children and adults of all degrees of intellectual disability.
The report aims to:
- revise and develop the interpretation of the term ‘challenging
behaviour’
- bring together relevant evidence-based practice with a consensus of
clinical opinion and experience
- provide a unified framework for good practice in multidisciplinary clinical
and social interventions
- encourage the development of creative, flexible and effective responses to
individuals who present behavioural challenges
- provide guidance for service developers and commissioners to inform and
empower service users and their carers
- provide a set of standards of good practice against which service provision
can be benchmarked and audited
- promote the development of comprehensive and effective local services and
reduce the number of individuals who are failed by the current service
provision
- provide a framework for training of health and social care professionals
and paid support staff and carers
- guide future research and development.
Challenging behaviour requires a multidisciplinary and multi-agency
approach, and therefore the report has been produced with the intention that
it will be relevant and useful to a wide range of health and social care
professionals, family and paid carers, service providers and
commissioners.
It is intended to provoke action as much as to inform, and to encourage
local and national debate, analysis, review and response.
