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Staff perception of aggressive behaviour in community services for adults with intellectual disabilities
- Authors:
- HENSEL Jennifer M., LUNSKY Yona, DEWA Carolyn S.
- Journal article citation:
- Community Mental Health Journal, 50(6), 2014, pp.743-751.
- Publisher:
- Springer
Experiencing aggressive behaviour has been associated with increased stress and turnover among staff who support adults with intellectual disabilities. Incident perception is a strong predictor of psychological outcomes after trauma but has not been studied in this staff group. This study clustered exposure to aggression and endorsement of emotional difficulties among 386 community residential group home staff and evaluated the contribution of four behavioural topographies to staff-rated perceived severity. Staff exposure varied considerably. Perceived severity correlated with subjective emotional difficulties. High perceived severity was associated with daily exposure, aggression towards others causing injury, and property aggression causing injury or damage. Therefore, the role the staff plays, whether a witness or target, may impact their experience. (Publisher abstract)
Aggression, sociability, and roommate friendship: new findings translated into a resource for self-determined choices
- Authors:
- WILTZ James, KALNINS Tracy
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 5(3), September 2008, pp.159-166.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Many individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) live with others, but little is known about roommate compatibility, and there are no resources available to assist in the selection process. People with ID and those who support them need practical information in order to make more informed and therefore better choices. Self-determination also should play an increased role in this complicated choice. This American paper provides a practical, data-based resource that can be incorporated into a self-determined process of roommate selection. The authors conducted two studies, uncovered new information, and translated the findings into something that individuals and their supporters can use. The first study examined data from a community sample. In the second investigation, key findings were replicated and expanded in an institutional setting. Taken together, the findings of these studies are generalizable to a larger portion of the population. The results indicated that for the trait of sociability, similarity was the key to friendship. On the other hand, for aggressiveness, it was not similarity, but the total aggression in the pair that was (inversely) related to friendship. A practical multistep resource is provided for adults with ID and their advocates to help with the selection of a roommate who might also become a friend.
House and housemate: an exploratory study of residential setting, interpersonal interactions and aggression in two persons with intellectual disabilities
- Authors:
- WARREN Keith, NEWSOMESean, ROE Brian
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Service Research, 4(30), 2004, pp.69-84.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Studies have consistently found higher levels of aggressive and auto-aggressive behavior among intellectually disabled (ID) residents of institutions and group homes than among ID residents in the community. However, the reasons for this discrepancy remain unclear. This exploratory study suggests that group living situations may increase the volatility of aggressive and auto-aggressive behaviors by leading to unstable nonlinear dynamics and providing the opportunity for deleterious interactions between residents. Nonlinear time series analysis of the aggressive and auto-aggressive behaviors of two group home residents provides initial support for these hypotheses. These findings lend support to the idea that community residence can be an important tool for decreasing aggressive behaviors. They also suggest that social workers might wish to give greater weight to the housemate choices of ID consumers so as to avoid deleterious housemate interactions. (Copies of this article are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Centre Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street Binghamton, NY 13904-1580)
Mindful staff can reduce the use of physical restraints when providing care to individuals with intellectual disabilities
- Authors:
- SINGH Nirbhay N., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 22(2), March 2009, pp.194-202.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
In a multiple baseline design, the authors sought to assess how training staff members in mindfulness affected their use of physical restraints for aggressive and destructive behaviours of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Twenty-three members of staff working in four group homes participated in a 12-week mindfulness-training programme. Objective data were collected on the number of incidents, staff observations of incidents, staff verbal redirections, restraints used, Stat medications administered, staff injuries and peer injuries. Data were collected during baseline, mindfulness training and mindfulness practice phases. As mindfulness training progressed, the use of restraints decreased, with almost no use being recorded by the end of the study. Any use of physical restraints was correlated with new admissions and on-call staff who had not received training in mindfulness. Stat medications administered also decreased and staff and peer injuries were close to zero levels during the latter stages of mindfulness practice.
Changing behaviour in a residential group setting for elderly people with learning difficulties
- Author:
- CIGNO Katy
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 23(6), December 1993, pp.629-642.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Group living is not an easy situation for residents and staff. A client with a long history of institutionalised care and aggressive behaviour proves to be a challenge to care staff who attempt to improve the quality of her life and that of her fellow residents through behavioural intervention aimed at reducing the number of disruptive incidents and increasing the use of social skills and activities for this client. The results indicate a lessening of incidents of 'unreasonable behaviour' and an increase in self-esteem. The appropriateness of this approach to elderly clients' problems is discussed.
The reduction of aggression in people with learning difficulties: a review of psychological methods
- Author:
- WHITAKER Simon
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 32(1), February 1993, pp.1-37.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Reviews the literature on the reduction of aggression in people with learning difficulties and finds that methods used were predominantly evaluated in staffed settings and with target behaviours more frequent than once a day, in contrast to the findings of a recent survey which found that the majority of aggressive individuals are living in the community and show aggression less than once a day. Argues that it may be necessary to develop and evaluate a new technology for reducing aggression.