Why your care plans are failing (and the 3 fixes you need to know for your PBSPs!)
Working tirelessly day in, day out to run a safe and effective care home? Feel like you’re constantly putting fires out but never getting it quite right? Well the remedy for all of this is lying at your fingertips (quite literally, keep scrolling).
You already know about care and what that means in terms of the right to respectful, dignified and individualised support. But, if you’re seeing challenging behaviours – like refusing to get out of bed, declining personal care or hitting out at carers – then it’s time to upgrade those care plans to Positive Behaviour Support Plans (PBSPs).
Support plans fail when they don’t address the root cause of behaviour: it’s like holding an umbrella in a hurricane! An umbrella works just fine for mild rain — a manageable situation. But when the intensity and scale of the storm increases, it’s useless. Similarly, many care plans fail because they are designed for standard, predictable challenges but fall apart under the complexity of real-life behavioural issues.
So here are 3 weather-proof and water tight fixes that you can make straight away:
1. Find a Pattern
Every behaviour has a reason, or at least it did to begin with. Behaviours are not random, they are a way of communicating how we feel and what we want. So, if you’re seeing aggressive or inappropriate behaviours just remember your A, B, Cs
- A is for Antecedent – what happened before the incident.
- B is for Behaviour – what is happening during the incident.
- C is for Consequence – what happened after the incident.
The clues are here! Watch it, record it and analyse it for patterns in behaviour, then you can…
Top tip!
Make sure you are recording FACTS not your opinion!
2. …Make a Plan
Once you know what triggers to look out for you can start to think of ways to avoid them or make them less of a risk. The plan needs to include strategies for preventing triggers and strategies for if/when they cannot be prevented.
- Proactive Strategies – these could include avoiding loud and busy areas, changing the time of personal care from morning to afternoon or playing someone’s favourite music if you have to do a difficult transfer.
- Reactive Strategies – These will be ways of helping the individual to feel safe and calm again. They could include walking away, providing them with a familiar object (like a photograph of loved ones) or turning the lights down.
Don’t forget about times when the challenging behaviours are not occurring – triggers for positive behaviours are just as important! But how do you make a positive behaviour keep happening? You need to…
Top tip!
The first plan you make shouldn’t be the plan you stick to – your strategies need to change as the person you’re supporting goes through changes (these could be emotional, psychological and/or physical).
3. …Positively Reinforce It!
Encouraging behaviours that keep our residents safe and happy relies on understanding what motivates them. We can’t ask residents to behave in ways that make sense to us as carers but that don’t make them feel good.
- Positive Reinforcement – means rewarding behaviours in ways that are meaningful to the resident we’re supporting. They could be verbal praise, small treats or doing activities they really enjoy.
Want to know the best part? The science behind positive reinforcement has existed for around 100 years! And in all that time the theory has not changed (tell me something works, without telling me that it works!).
Top tip!
Social reinforcers (like verbal praise) are more effective than material reinforcers (like giving gifts).
So, don’t settle for care plans that crumble under the pressure. With these 3 proven fixes, you’ll not only calm the chaos but also build a foundation for happier residents, less stressed staff and a more harmonious care home. It’s time to trade that flimsy umbrella for a hurricane-proof solution — because every resident deserves a plan care that truly works.