Putting It Into Practice

Module 4: Putting it into Practice

Now that you have worked through the 4 Essentials in Module 3, this next module will outline ways of putting Person Centred Active Support into practice.

In this module you will learn about:

what engagement means, and how you can support people to be engaged
some of the strategies you can use to overcome common challenges.

This video talk reminds you about the 4 Essentials of Person Centred Active Support and gives you some practical tips to help you start putting this approach into practice.

While you work through this module consider the following questions:

What does engagement mean?
How can you use Person Centred Active Support to engage the people you work with?
What challenges do you face in your work setting?

1. We are Engaged!

Engagement means that a person is:

doing something constructive - vacuuming, setting the table, washing the car
interacting with people - talking or listening to a person, paying attention to what they are doing, holding a conversation
taking part in a group activity - playing a team sport, dancing with a group, singing in a choir.

This video talk explores what it means to be engaged.

Everybody engages differently. Many people with an intellectual disability need support to be engaged. Some people also find it difficult to be engaged for long periods of time.

People's level of engagement will vary, for example, some people may:

take a lead role in an activity or interaction
participate in the whole of an activity or interaction
do part of an activity or take part in some of an interaction
dip in and out of the activity or interaction, taking a rest and coming back to it.

Being engaged is good for everyone. Being engaged means people are interacting and participating. When people are disengaged, they are more likely to be bored, pace around, or display various types of self-stimulatory or challenging behaviours. When people are engaged they are taking part and being included in what is happening in their homes and communities. All of these things lead to empowerment, control and, independence.

Engagement helps us:

keep fit and mentally alert
have a sense of personal worth
express who we are
establish common interests with other people
develop our talents and allow us to show what we can do
demonstrate our independence and autonomy
look after ourselves and our daily needs
develop relationships with other people.

Activity 4.1

In this video, you can see examples of people being engaged in activities and social interactions.

Watch the video and then do the following activities. Write in the downloadable workbook, located in the Resources section.

Write down three different activities that you see people being engaged in.
Describe the type of support being provided to enable the person to be engaged.
In the video there are examples of support workers 'standing back' and giving people time to engage in activities. Describe one example of this.
Look at the example in the Workbook and describe how it might feel 'standing back' rather than doing the task for the person you are supporting.

If you have any questions about this module, or would like some further guidance about the activities, you can send an enquiry using the Contact Form.

2. Common Challenges and Strategies

There are a number of common challenges for support workers in supporting people to be engaged.

This video talk outlines some of the challenges and practical strategies you can use to meet these.

In this section we suggest further strategies you can use to overcome each of the challenges Silvia talked about in the video.

1. The person is perceived as too disabled to participate 

how can you break the activity up into smaller or easier parts?
are you providing enough support?
are you providing the right type of support?
is there adaptive or modified equipment you could use to support the person to participate?

2. The person is perceived as too difficult to participate

have you tried little and often to help the person experience some success?
could you give the person more control over the activity?
are you and other support workers using consistent communication strategies?
do you present an activity the same way every time to avoid confusion?
does the person have a Behaviour Support Plan you can refer to for guidance about responding to their challenging behaviour?

3. The person continues to say 'no' to an activity, or chooses not to do anything

does 'no' really mean that the person really doesn't want to do the activity, or just has no experience with it?
have you tried little and often with this activity to help the person experience some success?
have you tried another way of communicating and inviting the person to participate?

Melissa dances. She links arms with another dancer and spins around in her wheelchair.

4. Support workers find it too hard to think of new things to do with the people they support

have you thought about the person's interests and other related activities they may enjoy?
have you asked other support workers, family members and friends what the person likes to do?
have you thought about all the everyday tasks you do at home/work and whether the person can be involved in all of these?

5. There is a risk in doing this opportunity with this person

have you identified the risks and discussed how they can be managed with other support workers, staff and your manager or supervisor?
can you use adaptive or modified equipment, to overcome the risk?
could you bring the activity to the person, or do the activity in another room or environment?

6. Some support workers are not willing to implement Person Centred Active Support

what is influencing their attitudes?
do they realise that Person Centred Active Support is a way of putting disability policy into practice?
is the use of Person Centred Active Support in their job description?
can you talk about it with your team in staff meetings?
can you talk about it with your manager?

Cameron and Shelley are shopping at the supermarket. Shelley puts the pumpkin into the shopping basket that Cameron holds on his lap.

Key things to think about:

Communication — does the person understand what you are inviting them to do?

Environment — is it too busy or noisy?

Preparation and Presentation — is it clear enough what you are inviting the person to do?

Small Steps — is the task broken into small enough steps or are you asking the person to do too much of a task at once?

Activity 4.2

In this video, you can see how support workers overcome some of the challenges of putting Person Centred Active Support into practice.

Watch the video and then do the following activities. Write in the downloadable workbook, located in the Resources section.

Describe the steps that the support worker uses so that Cameron can participate in cutting up the pumpkin.
In the video, Susan supports two people to be engaged in a music activity. She talks about what it might mean if someone doesn't want to participate. What suggestions does she make?
Taking any one of the examples in the video, describe how the support worker: a) manages risk, b) offers choice, and c) prepares and presents the activity to the people they were supporting.

If you have any questions about this module, or would like some further guidance about the activities, you can send an enquiry using the Contact Form.

Summary Module 4

When you put the 4 Essentials into practice, you will find that you can support the people you work with to be meaningfully engaged in their homes and communities, most of the time.

Being engaged is important for all of us. When we are engaged we are interacting and participating, by:

doing something constructive
interacting with people, or
taking part in a group activity.

There will always be challenges. However, you will find that when you use the principles and practice of Person Centred Active Support, most challenges can be overcome.

NEXT: Module 5 Organisational Support