How the right support changed John’s life for the better

John is profoundly deaf and communicates using British Sign Language which he has significantly adapted with a unique “accent”. Before joining us, he had been locked up in an Assessment and Treatment Centre because of his distress behaviour.

Where others may have seen a young man with a history of violence, we saw John’s unique situation as an opportunity to develop a positive behaviour support programme to both reduce his challenging behaviour and improve his quality of life.

His staff team, with help from Dimensions Behaviour Support Team, worked hard to learn how best to communicate with him. We learned that one of his first goals was to become more independent.

After time, they could identify precursor behaviours and respond to bring any episodes of challenging behaviour to a close quickly and safely before they escalated.

After just three months with us, John’s behaviour was transformed. He became much happier and more at ease and as a result, his support in the community was reduced from 3:1 to 2:1.

Similarly his in-house support reduced to 1:1, resulting in savings to his support package and much greater independence. And shortly after, his support was reduced to just 1:1 full-time.

Instances of challenging behaviour were John’s way of communicating that he was unhappy. Yet with the right support, he’s had no reported incidents of severe physical aggression since July 2012.

Initially, staff supported John with all areas of personal care but over the years he has learnt how to do these himself and become more independent.

Most importantly he has developed strong relationships with his staff team, enabling him to live the life that he chooses.

John’s story is just one example of how by giving the right support, substantial savings can be made and individual’s quality of life can be transformed.

*Not his real image used