Eligiu
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2017
- Messages
- 1,428
So, in Australia I receive government funding to pay for living costs associated with having several significant disabilities - namely level 3 autism, and cptsd.
One of the things that what's called the NDIS sometimes will fund for people, depending on the situation, is what is known as Positive Behaviour Support.
This is a type of therapy aimed at helping people with behaviours of concern (for me, various serious and harmful forms of.self harm, verbal and physical aggression, etc). It is difficult to get this funded especially for 'psychosocial disabilities' as the NDIS constantly tries to push people like they did with me, back to Community MH servics. Which is kinda dumb since the community services referred me to be granted access to the NDIS as my needs were too complex for them...
Anyway, when @arrall visited he got check out some of what is involved with PBS, and I realised that some of how it works, even a basic model of it, could be of use to some people.
Essentially PBS works on the premise that 'all Behaviour is communication' and practitioners seek to understand what their client is communicating with any behavior.
For example, if i am triggered badly by my dad, because I am unable to verbalise my emotions, and feel like I am burdening even my support workers if they ask how I am (I always just say good thanks), I have in the past relied on cutting or burning myself, specifically to trigger the person I needed to talk about it with, to ask 'what happened to your arm' which would then allow me to discuss it.
Clearly, this is not an effective way of communicating. Instead, i wear a lanyard, and carry around a box of cardboard tags which click on to the lanyard, and say things like 'I feel anxious' or 'I feel sad'. This has the impact of meaning when support workers or therapists check my tag by looking or asking to see it, instead of seeing a third degree burn and asking what happened, they see a tag and go 'why are you anxious.'
For other behaviours, I had to do some intense self reflection on why I did it. For a lot of the time, the issue is that when I am by myself, I am not kind to myself often.
Too many people attempt to remove behaviours of concern, but they do not give a person sufficient or appropriate replacement behaviours.
After working to develop my behaviour support plan, I now have it set up so that depending on how I was triggered, I instead try to force myself to what is written on the plan, which are replacement behaviours I picked myself.
Things like:
Acrylic paint pouring
Oil painting
Pastel
Watercolour painting
Zelda
Animal crossing
Last of us
Meditation
Playing guitar
Playing piano
Using my sensory items
Going for a walk.
I have a chart with paper saying 'no alcohol/no weed' etc and for every day without,I get a sticker so I can count the total days, not consecutive days.
I also have a spreadsheet where I stamp which replacement behaviours I practiced and who with. That way I can track which ones I seem to prefer.
The critical thing about PBS is it works from a neuroscience perspective where people need time and room to fail and support a d encouragement, not shame when engaging in a behaviour.
Having this therapy has changed my life. I genuinely believed I would be dead before I got to 30 without it. Now I think that within 3years I will no longer need it
But the thing is, you really do not have to pay for this. All it is, is figuring out what unhealthy behaviours you wanna switch for one's which LESS negative, or even healthy.
Then, devise a way to keep track of your progress.
And then off you go. My ex PBS practitioners boss kept congratulating him for thinking up stuff we did during sessions and he had to tell him I actually thought of it
One of the things that what's called the NDIS sometimes will fund for people, depending on the situation, is what is known as Positive Behaviour Support.
This is a type of therapy aimed at helping people with behaviours of concern (for me, various serious and harmful forms of.self harm, verbal and physical aggression, etc). It is difficult to get this funded especially for 'psychosocial disabilities' as the NDIS constantly tries to push people like they did with me, back to Community MH servics. Which is kinda dumb since the community services referred me to be granted access to the NDIS as my needs were too complex for them...
Anyway, when @arrall visited he got check out some of what is involved with PBS, and I realised that some of how it works, even a basic model of it, could be of use to some people.
Essentially PBS works on the premise that 'all Behaviour is communication' and practitioners seek to understand what their client is communicating with any behavior.
For example, if i am triggered badly by my dad, because I am unable to verbalise my emotions, and feel like I am burdening even my support workers if they ask how I am (I always just say good thanks), I have in the past relied on cutting or burning myself, specifically to trigger the person I needed to talk about it with, to ask 'what happened to your arm' which would then allow me to discuss it.
Clearly, this is not an effective way of communicating. Instead, i wear a lanyard, and carry around a box of cardboard tags which click on to the lanyard, and say things like 'I feel anxious' or 'I feel sad'. This has the impact of meaning when support workers or therapists check my tag by looking or asking to see it, instead of seeing a third degree burn and asking what happened, they see a tag and go 'why are you anxious.'
For other behaviours, I had to do some intense self reflection on why I did it. For a lot of the time, the issue is that when I am by myself, I am not kind to myself often.
Too many people attempt to remove behaviours of concern, but they do not give a person sufficient or appropriate replacement behaviours.
After working to develop my behaviour support plan, I now have it set up so that depending on how I was triggered, I instead try to force myself to what is written on the plan, which are replacement behaviours I picked myself.
Things like:
Acrylic paint pouring
Oil painting
Pastel
Watercolour painting
Zelda
Animal crossing
Last of us
Meditation
Playing guitar
Playing piano
Using my sensory items
Going for a walk.
I have a chart with paper saying 'no alcohol/no weed' etc and for every day without,I get a sticker so I can count the total days, not consecutive days.
I also have a spreadsheet where I stamp which replacement behaviours I practiced and who with. That way I can track which ones I seem to prefer.
The critical thing about PBS is it works from a neuroscience perspective where people need time and room to fail and support a d encouragement, not shame when engaging in a behaviour.
Having this therapy has changed my life. I genuinely believed I would be dead before I got to 30 without it. Now I think that within 3years I will no longer need it
But the thing is, you really do not have to pay for this. All it is, is figuring out what unhealthy behaviours you wanna switch for one's which LESS negative, or even healthy.
Then, devise a way to keep track of your progress.
And then off you go. My ex PBS practitioners boss kept congratulating him for thinking up stuff we did during sessions and he had to tell him I actually thought of it
