Course outline

• What Is the Behavior?
• What Is the Situation?
• Understanding the Reasons for Difficult Behavior
• What Is Going on Before, During, and After the Behavior?
• How Do You Feel About the Behavior?
• What Changes Would Make the Behavior or Situation Acceptable?
• Understanding the Reasons for Difficult Behavior
• Develop tactics that can help manage difficult behavior
• Diagnose underlying factors that cause barriers or breakdown of communication
• Respond to difficult situations with professionalism and confidence
• Examples of Difficult      

• Behavior
  • Examples of Difficult Behavior
  • Aggressive abusive behavior
• Disruptive behavior

• Bored, apathetic and disinterested
• Strange bizarre behavior

• Non-attendance
• Non Compliance
• Scapegoating
  • Lack of personal hygiene
  • Personality conflicts - Which aspects?
  • Potential Reasons for Behavior
  • Underlying Causes of Difficult Behavior
  • Don’t want to be there
  • Disability/health problems, brain injury, psych illness, diabetes
  • Emotionally upset Sad, angry, grieving
  • Inappropriate social skills, eg. Different culture, low self-awareness
• Low self-esteem
  • Just having a bad day
  • Practical Action Section
  • Recognizing your own responses
  • Our Emotional Baggage
  • Early life experience
  • Unresolved anger, grief and loss
• Our own prejudices
• Personality style

• Professional insecurities

• Work stress
•  Home pressures and concerns
•  Just having a bad day
•  Popular Irrational Beliefs
• Recognizing your own responses
• The person you have most control over is you!
• Managing Yourself

• Know your buttons or triggers

• Refer on
•  Recognise you’re aroused/upset
• Consciously calm and relax yourself
•  Take time to choose your response
•  Get another perspective and/or debrief
•  Deal with your feelings
• Get over it!
• Prevention and Early Intervention Prevention

• Make environment comfortable and program interesting
• Explore students’ motivation to be in the group
• Establish group rules and contracts - boundaries
• Involve participants in the decision making
• Establish a positive relationship and encourage relationships in the group modelling

• Prevention and Early Intervention Prevention

• Accept that it is OK to express feelings
• Listen to and acknowledge students feelings and concerns
• Behavior observation
• Be consistent in applying rules and boundaries

• Re-assess, update

• Reward positive behavior and ignore non-damaging negative
• Model appropriate behavior
• Initial Techniques for Responding to Difficult Behavior
• Keep yourself and other students safe
• Don’t add to the angst; stay calm, be discreet
• Ignore negative, non-damaging behavior
• Communicate your concern clearly.
• Acknowledge the person’s feelings.
• Refer back to contracts made earlier
• Don’t issue ultimatums
• Provide the opportunity for time out or a private chat
• Assess the impact on others. Seek advice if necessary.

• Follow up after an incident
• Documenting the specifics of the incident
• Determine the seriousness.
• Options for action:
• University ordinances/policy
• Referral to line manager
•  Meeting to develop behavior agreement
•  further training and support for staff
• Guidelines for an informal meeting
• Sample Behavior Agreement
• Self-care issues and other support available
• Recognise the effect an interaction has on you
• Allow yourself recovery time
• Be aware of things that help you to recover effectively and quickly
• Be available to support others who may have been through a difficult interaction where possible
• Access other helping agencies
• support available to you
  • staff counselling
  • supervisor
  • HR
  • Student Services
  • a Summary Master Plan

 Who Can Benefit?

• Frontline managers
• supervisors, team leaders, coordinators, administrators, public relations and sales personnel and other staff members who deal with the public or provide a service to internal clients