Positive behaviour support Getting it right from the start

102 Positive behaviour support: Getting it right from the start - Facilitators reference manual
Appendix 3: Overview — Person Centred Active Support
PCAS is now the required approach to service delivery in Disability Accommodation Services
(DAS). The department has embraced PCAS in order to increase the participation of people with
a disability in everyday tasks and activities and tackle associated issues such as:
• Problems with under-activity
• Behavioural issues
• Physical health problems
• Depression.
The role of staff is to constantly look for opportunities to involve people in the things happening
around them, so they gain more control over their lives, become more included in their
community, pursue their own interests and gain independence.
The Person Centred Active Support (PCAS) approach is about:
• Increasing the levels of everyday engagement and interactions between staff and people with
disabilities living in group homes and documenting this via a planning process which records
and monitors activities, allocates staff time to ensure activities occur, and regularly reviews a
person’s progress.
• Ensuring people with a disability enjoy spending time participating in different activities.
• Challenging disengagement which sometimes happens to people with a disability where staff
do most things for them and they become non-participating spectators in their own lives,
resulting in a loss of skills, confidence and motivation.
The approach provides a model in which staff map participation in activities within group
homes and the local community, ensuring the support people require is planned, provided
and regularly reviewed.
The approach includes the following components:
• Staff proactively planning opportunities for and with people.
• Staff documenting the activities to be pursued, their responsibilities and allocating time to
support activities.
• Staff supporting participation (where required) by supplementing verbal instruction with
gestures or physical prompts, demonstrating how to undertake the tasks or activity, providing
physical guidance, etc.
• Staff regularly monitoring and reviewing the opportunities provided.
PCAS is based on a premise that all of us enjoy spending time participating in different activities.
Generally, we do not like doing little or nothing for most of the time.
The amount of time spent participating in social, personal, household, leisure or other pursuits
typical of everyday living, as opposed to having little to do, being passive or engaged in aimless
activity, is a measure of quality of life.
PCAS is not concerned with forcing or coercing people to undertake chores or household tasks
they do not want to be involved with, but involves gathering information about the activities they
wish to pursue (at home and in the local community), and having in place a structured way to
ensure engagement with such activities occurs.