Specialist Staff
St Anne's provides a Behaviour Specialist on a needs basis provides the services of a specialist staff such as educational pyschotherapists. The Behaviour Specialist’s role is to provide an assessment and intervention service for children and youth, from 0 to 19 years of age, and their families, carers and schools, when there are significant challenges in behaviour. The Behaviour Specialist delivers the service within a behavioural and developmental framework to understand behaviour and interactions in the child, and then provide interventions where necessary
To access the Behaviour Specialist, the client must:
1. Be aged 0 to 19 years
2. Present with challenging behaviour which:
-may result in exclusion from typical school, home and/or community setting
-requires multi-element assessment and intervention supports
-often results in reduced quality of life for the person and his/her family
-often impedes social relationships and learning
Key Functions:
Perform a combination of assessment methods as deemed appropriate to explore the issues relating to the child’s behaviour challenges, including observations and interviews with appropriate people.
Compile comprehensive reports based upon information obtained through the assessments and feedback to parents, carers and professionals. This will be achieved either individually or during meetings.
Attend team meetings, educational reviews and any other meetings that are appropriate to the situation, and contribute to assessment/diagnostic decisions that are being carried out in relation to the child such as educational statementing.
Implement behaviour intervention strategies as guided by the assessment process for an appropriate number of sessions prior to hand over to parents, carers and staff to continue the strategies.
Attend scheduled sessions and implement one-to-one behaviour intervention, where appropriate, with clients and families.
Demonstrate behaviour interventions and programmes to family, staff and professionals to allow continuity of programme implementation
Liaise with Educational Psychologist in relation to assessment results, reports and behaviour interventions.
Provide training and advice for individuals, families, carers and professionals.
Focus on an individual with challenging behaviour to support their living and care arrangements.
Ensures a holistic approach to identifying and addressing key individual factors that may precipitate challenging or negative behaviour.
Ensures flexibility in the type and range of intervention services.