Enter, PBS: Our latest complex care feature

Positive Behaviour Support is a framework that means a lot to us at Log my Care. It’s impactful, effective, and truly person-centred. I’m proud to be part of a team making it simpler and more effective for carers to implement through Log my Care’s software. So, in this blog, I’m going to introduce you to the framework and walk you through our recently released PBS Plan feature.

Firstly, what is Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)?

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) is a person-centred framework that enhances the quality of life for individuals with learning disabilities or mental health conditions. At its core, PBS seeks to understand what an individual needs from their lifestyle and environment. This fulfilment of needs leads to enhanced well-being and meaningful community participation.

Fundamentally, PBS understands behaviour as a form of communication, emphasising the need to have clearly outlined strategies to avoid behaviour escalation. Too often, PBS focuses on how to be reactive when an individual’s behaviour does escalate or reaches a crisis point. If PBS is done right, and the individual’s needs are met, behaviour escalation should only happen very rarely.

With that being said, a critical part of the PBS framework is enabling care teams to recognise escalating behaviour and understand how to stay proactive in those moments to avoid escalation.

In short, PBS is a truly person-centred framework. It’s collaborative and really seeks to understand what an individual needs from their lifestyle and environment to feel fulfilled and experience long-term increased quality of life.

Where did we get the inspiration for a PBS feature?

When exploring how we wanted to develop Log my Care in 2024, we knew we wanted to focus on the underserved segment of care providers who work with adults with learning disabilities. A segment in critical need of care management software built for the incredibly complex needs of the care they provide. So, we wanted to ensure we were building the right tools to fulfil these needs. Having delivered Outcomes & Goals in 2023 and consulted our users during development for the Incident Reporting features, it emerged that PBS was a core part of the incident management and review cycle for organisations delivering care and support for adults with learning disabilities.

Let’s dive into the PBS Plan feature in Log my Care

I’ll walk you through this as if you were setting up someone who’s just joined your service with a Positive Behavioural Support plan.

Firstly, you would go through an initial assessment with the service user and potentially their previous carer, a family member, or a friend. The aim of this step is to get a clear picture of their environmental needs, lifestyle preferences, any goals they have set for themselves (or would like to), and any potential triggers.

The feature is designed so that a care team can take a functional approach to understanding different behaviour types (baseline, escalating, and crisis). It uses a traffic light system to support carers in outlining proactive strategies to support baseline behaviour, active strategies to deescalate behaviour escalation, and reactive strategies to avoid a service user reaching crisis point:

🟢 Baseline behaviour

Supporting baseline behaviour should be the core focus of a PBS Plan.

What does a service user need from their lives to be fulfilled? Are they working towards any goals? What activities do they like to spend their time on? What are their environmental needs? When a service user is at their baseline, they are experiencing positive behaviour.

It’s important to recognise their baseline: are they quite a calm or docile person, or are they loud and outgoing? It’s important to recognise baseline behaviour both to be able to support and maintain this behaviour and to notice any deviation from this behaviour as it may indicate that they are feeling triggered and their behaviour might be escalating.

Proactive strategies

Work with a service user to understand what goals they want to work towards and how to action these day-to-day. Support them in making time for some of their favourite activities, whether that’s painting or reading. Understand what they need from their environment - do they need low light? Do they need somewhere quiet to focus on their goals?

🟠 Escalating behaviour

While a crucial part of a PBS Plan, being reactive shouldn’t be the focus.

When an individual’s behaviour is escalating, it’s important to recognise the signs. Do they experience increased irritability? Do they raise their voice or start speaking negatively about themselves? Understanding this is imperative so that you can look at their PBS Plan and know what actions you need to take to intervene before crisis point.

Active strategies

For some service users, this could look like dimming the lights or making other environmental changes, or by introducing activities or sensory tools that a service user finds comforting.

🔴 Crisis point

With a successful PBS Plan, crisis point should happen rarely. But it’s important to be prepared for it.

If the service user were to reach crisis point, are they at risk to themselves or others? This could look like self-harm, escape attempts, or abusive and violent behaviour.

Reactive strategies

Some service users may need you to create an environment where they feel calm and remove any triggers or sources of stress, or they may need you to provide comfort and support and to listen to them.

‍

You can see this in action through the interactive demo below:

‍

So, how does the feature interact with our other features?

The PBS Plan feature is a brand-new support plan within Log my Care and one of the first new templates plans we have released for a while (hence why we’re all so excited about it!). It comes with all the care plan features. You can make a statement about the user, add goals, set review dates, and link to risk assessments. Plus, you still get all the flexibility you get with other support plans in Log my Care so you can add additional pictures and documents. You can also easily demonstrate compliance to regulators as your team can mark them as read and the individuals you support can sign the plans.

Because the functionality of our PBS Plan feature is so similar to our other support plans, it’s super simple for users to implement in their own organisations.

Finally, what are the outcomes of a successful PBS Plan?

1. Incident reduction

A key outcome from effective PBS is incident reduction. It helps care providers understand the needs of an individual so that proactive strategies can be implemented to avoid escalation of behaviour. It also equips carers with the ability to recognise escalating behaviour if it does happen, allowing them to respond early and prevent crises.

2. Integration with existing goal setting

It can be really effective to interlink a PBS plan with existing goals that individuals have set for themselves. By acting on their goals daily and finding that fulfilment, they are more likely to experience accomplishment, leading to positive behaviour. Log my Care’s Outcomes and Goals feature allows you to seamlessly integrate PBS Plans with service user goals.

3. It champions truly person-centred care

Undoubtedly my favourite thing about PBS is just how much it puts the individual in the driver’s seat. Together with their care practitioner, individuals are encouraged to communicate their lifestyle and environmental needs and ambitions. Using these insights, they’re empowered to live a life that meets their needs and is fulfilling. And isn’t that the meaning of person-centred care?

See our complex care features in action in your 1-1 demo

We would love to hear how you’re using PBS plans in your organisation and demonstrate how Log my Care’s PBS Plan feature can make your efforts more effective. Book your 1-1 demo to see PBS Plans, alongside other complex care features such as Outcomes & Goals and Incident Management.

‍