Who is Likely to Be Harmed From Challenging Behaviour?

Challenging behaviour can affect more people than we realise. Without understanding who may be harmed, situations can escalate quickly and put others at risk. 

So, who is likely to be harmed from challenging behaviour? They are the individual showing the challenging behaviour, family members, carers, support workers, healthcare professionals, teachers, other service users, and members of the public who may be affected by the behaviour.

This blog explains who may be affected by challenging behaviour, the potential risks involved, and ways to minimise harm.

What Is Challenging Behaviour?

Challenging behaviour is often a sign that a person is struggling with their feelings, unmet needs or surroundings. This also includes individuals with severe learning disability who may need support from others to meet their needs.

For example, if a person is hungry, in pain, tired, or overwhelmed, they may not be able to explain how they feel. As a result, they might shout, cry, become angry, or refuse to cooperate. Their behaviour is showing that they need support.

4 types of challenging behaviour

In the UK, challenging behaviour falls into four main categories:

• Aggression
• Self-injurious behaviour
• Destructiveness
• Disruptive behaviour

A detailed discussion is covered below:

1. Aggression:

Aggression is behaviour that causes harm or the risk of harm to other people or objects.

Examples include:

• Hitting, biting, kicking, or pushing others
• Verbal aggression, such as shouting, swearing, or threatening someone
• Throwing objects or damaging items during an outburst

2. Self-Harm (Self-Injurious Behaviour):

Self-injurious behaviour is when a person deliberately hurts themselves.

Examples include:

• Head-banging against walls or furniture
• Scratching or biting themselves
• Pulling out hair or repeatedly hitting their own body

3. Destructiveness

Destructive behaviour involves damaging property or belongings.

Examples include:

• Breaking furniture or household items
• Throwing or smashing objects
• Ripping clothing, books, or equipment

4. Disruptiveness

Disruptive behaviour means actions that interrupt daily activities. This can affect routines, learning, work, or social interactions.

Examples include:

• Consistent yelling
• Constantly interrupting people
• Not obeying reasonable directions
• Socially inappropriate behavior
• Behaviours that are disruptive to those around them

The carer and professional need to do more than just stop the behaviours. They need to try to find out what is being communicated.

What Makes a Behaviour Challenging?

Behaviour becomes challenging if it affects an individual’s well-being negatively. It creates safety issues or causes difficulty in performing day-to-day tasks. Difficult behaviour includes those which are recurring in nature, highly intense, unmanageable, or prone to result in either physical or emotional hurt.

It is essential to understand that a behaviour doesn’t become difficult simply because it is inconvenient and unusual. Difficult behaviour usually means that there is something wrong and the individual is unable to cope with it.

A behaviour may be considered challenging if it:

• Puts the individual or others at risk of harm.
• Causes significant distress to the person or those around them.
• Interferes with learning, relationships, work, or daily activities.
• Occurs frequently or becomes increasingly severe over time.
• Makes it hard for the person to get support, education, healthcare, or join community activities.

What Kind of Behaviour Is the Most Difficult to Tolerate?

Behaviours that cause harm, create fear, or disrupt daily life are often considered the most challenging. Examples are physical aggression, self-injury, verbal abuse, and risky behaviours.

What one person finds difficult may not be challenging for someone else. The situation, how often the behaviour occurs, and the support available can all affect how hard it is to manage a behaviour.

When supporting someone with challenging behaviour, keep in mind that it usually signals distress rather than a wish to harm. pain, anxiety, or confusion may all contribute to the behaviour.

Understanding why challenging behaviour happens is usually the first step in managing challenging behaviour effectively. Looking beyond the behaviour can help caregivers and professionals give better support. This approach can also lessen the impact on everyone involved.

Who Is Likely to Be Harmed from Challenging Behaviour?

The people most likely to be harmed by challenging behaviour include the individual displaying the behaviour, family members and carers, support workers, healthcare professionals, teachers, other service users, and, in some cases, members of the public.
Harm may be physical, emotional, psychological, or social. Challenging behaviour often shows that a person is having trouble. They might struggle to express a need, deal with their environment, or handle strong emotions. It’s usually not a deliberate effort to cause harm.

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What is a good way of preventing challenging behaviour?

There is no one approach that will suit all circumstances since every person is unique.

Problem behaviour can usually be minimised or prevented. This occurs through understanding the individual, their requirements, and the situations affecting them. Prevention is always preferable to reacting to an issue since it creates a more secure environment for everyone involved.

There are six key approaches stated below to prevent problem behaviour

Step 1: Observation & Trigger Identification

The most crucial step in this process is the careful observation of behaviour. Difficult behaviour often has a trigger, something that precedes difficult behaviour. This behaviour doesn’t occur “out of thin air.”

Possible triggers include:

• Hunger, tiredness or being unwell
• Noisy environments
• Sudden change in schedule
• Feeling ignored or misunderstood
• Difficult tasks that make the individual frustrated

Step 2: Identify Early Warning Signs

There are early warning signs of distress that are likely to occur before challenging behaviour occurs.

These could be:

• Facial expressions or body language changes
• Withdrawing or being uncharacteristically silent
• Pacing or fidgeting
• Using a raised voice or repetition of questions
• anxiety or frustration

Identifying these early warning signs shows one how to react swiftly in a calm manner. This leads to preventing the escalation of the situation.

Step 3: Understand the Underlying Cause

Behaviour is one of the expressions of communication. If someone has difficulty expressing themselves verbally, it could be because they are using their behaviour as a way to communicate what they are feeling.

Try asking yourself:

• Are they communicating that they are feeling pain?
• Are they experiencing fear or anxiety?
• Are they looking for comfort or help?
• Are they attempting to get out of a situation?

Once you understand the “why” of the behaviour, your response will be much more effective.

Step 4: Build Positive Relationships

Building positive and trusting relationships is one of the strongest ways to address the difficult behaviours of a person. The person becomes less distressed when he/she feels respect, importance, and understanding.

Developing a positive relationship can be done through:

• Effective listening with patience
• Maintaining respectful communication
• Showing consistency and reliability
• Empathising with the person
• Having positive time spent with the individual

The positive relationship provides the person with a sense of safety and decreases anxiety

Step 5: Provide a Supporting Environment 

The environment greatly impacts behaviour. An environment which is stress-inducing or unclear may increase the chances of problem behaviours developing.

In order to provide a supporting environment:

• Maintain predictable and consistent routines
• Limit noise and other distractions
• Establish expectations which are simple to follow
• If needed, offer structure and visuals
• Be sure that the individual knows what will happen next

Such an environment provides a sense of comfort and control for the individual.

Step 6: Use Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) Strategies

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) encourages good behaviour instead of punishing bad behaviour.

Some PBS approaches are:

• Rewarding positive behaviour instantly
• Offering choices to give a sense of control
• Teaching alternatives for expressing one’s needs
• Dividing the task into small parts
• Encouraging attempts rather than successes

These strategies are commonly applied in managing behaviour problems and decreasing the probability of future misbehaviour. These skills are commonly taught in a challenging behaviour training course

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FAQ

Conclusion

Who is likely to be harmed from challenging behaviour? As outlined within this article, individuals at risk include the person exhibiting the challenging behaviour, family members, carers, professionals, educators, other service users and members of the general public. This may have effects that are physical, emotional, psychological and/or social.

Challenging behaviour often results from individuals experiencing issues surrounding needs not being met, distress, difficulties communicating their needs and frustrations with the environment. In order to best understand how to work with these individuals in an effective manner, it is important to identify the root of the problem.

There is no one fix-all answer, but by identifying triggers and early signs of a problem, and implementing PBS techniques, it is possible to prevent a situation from becoming a crisis situation.