Services

Behavioural Support

Simplicity

In delivering outcomes for you and your family, we know you need a simple process and clear communication to help make your life easier. We make it easy for you to understand what we do, and why, so you can focus on your life.

Tenacity

We do not believe there is only one way to help you get more out of life. We are open-minded and creative so, if necessary, we will adapt the way we do things until you successfully reach your goals.

Collaboration

While we are health and employment experts, we do not hold all the answers to creating a healthy and meaningful life. You are the expert on your own life, so our approachable clinicians will collaborate closely with you and your support people to assess your needs and work through your goals together.

Trust

We are clear and transparent so that you can understand from the outset how we intend to bring your plan into action and make progress over time. Honesty and directness are paramount to building a long-term partnership with you that is based on credibility and trust.

What is behaviour support?

A contemporary understanding of behaviour support requires the use of a person-centred approach to improving a person’s quality of life. Life enrichment, choice and human rights are prioritised alongside strategies to reduce the negative impact of challenging behaviour in a person’s life. Such support should be delivered under a clear and accountable framework.

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)

PBS is increasingly the preferred approach of behaviour support in Australia and internationally. It has emerged from the disability rights movement and is grounded in principles of person-centred practice that seek to protect and give expression to a person’s human rights.

PBS is focussed on enhancing quality of life through systems change (environmental redesign) and educational methods, and is underpinned by person-centred values (Horner et al., 1990), the science of applied behaviour analysis (Carr et al., 2002), and other evidence-based approaches (Gore, 2013); elements that continue to be emphasised in more contemporary definitions of PBS (e.g., Gore et al., 2022; Kincaid et al., 2016).

PBS Elements

PBS integrates the following critical elements into a cohesive whole:

PBS seeks to promote a better lifestyle that makes challenging behaviours irrelevant for the person.

PBS seeks to implement initiative-taking strategies that help improve the environment (physical, social, and psychological) and avoid challenging behaviour; and will also use reactive strategies to use if the challenging behaviour occurs.

The primary stakeholder is the person, but there can also be many others who have a stake in the intervention (e.g., family members, support workers, funders, other decision makers), and their involvement and contribution are essential through assessment, intervention planning and implementation.

Often the system and supports around the person with challenging behaviour can be contributing factors, and PBS seeks to improve systems that enhance quality of life and can ameliorate challenging behaviour. PBS uses an interdisciplinary approach and can encapsulate a range of supports techniques, therapies, and strategies. Intervention will often entail using multiple components simultaneously.

Many things influence behaviour, and PBS practitioners will use a rights-based and person-centred approach when using the science of applied behaviour analysis, other evidence-based approaches and disability theories and perspectives (e.g., in understanding the biological and social experience of disability) to inform good practice.

The intervention plan must be valid and relevant to the context it is designed for and must relate to important (‘socially significant’) outcomes for the person.

What are ‘challenging behaviours?

Different terms are used to refer to behaviours that negatively impact a person’s quality of life and may present risks of harm to the person or others. These might include behaviours of action (e.g., overt behaviours such as verbal and physical aggression, property damage, inappropriate social or sexual behaviours, wandering) or inaction (e.g., those related to lack of or reduced initiation or non-performance of behaviours).

We use the term ‘challenging behaviours’ because these behaviours challenge us as a service system to find a way to address the behaviour that is both effective (in increasing quality of life, decreasing the behaviour and reducing and eliminating restrictive practices) and also appropriate (respectful of a person’s rights, aligned with their values, and the expectations of the community).

In this way, the challenge is set to the system and service providers and seeks to avoid pathologising or devaluing a person. Challenging behaviours do not occur in a vacuum; they are the result of an interplay between a person and their environment – and our primary focus is to identify and respond to unmet needs by building capable systems and meaningful environments.

Challenging behaviour is a term that is clearly defined in the literature and is the most commonly used term in research and practice. There are other terms used. For example, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission refer to ‘behaviours of concern’ to describe behaviours that present risk of harm to the person and/or others and that negatively impact a person’s quality of life.

Individual Therapy

Many individuals receive funding for NDIS therapeutic supports under their NDIS plans. The term ‘therapeutic supports’ covers a wide range of therapies designed to assist NDIS participants to achieve their goals related to function and independence.

For example, you might use NDIS funded therapeutic supports for therapies that improve your ability to care for yourself, move around safely, and participate in your family, school, sport, workplace and community.

Home and Garden Maintenance

Are you finding it difficult to stay on top of your garden, cleaning and maintenance due to disability? Your NDIS funding may be able to help cover the cost for professional services. FBC can help with this process and ensure your specific needs are met. Whether it’s trimming your beloved rose bushes, mowing the lawn, extracting those pesky weeds or performing general maintenance tasks around your home.

Everyone deserves a quality life and strives to make that a reality. Our kind, experienced staff understand first-hand the challenges that living with a disability can create. You can rely on us to listen to your requirements and preferences and promptly provide the best maintenance and gardening services that align with your funding.

Have you found it more difficult to stay on top of things around the house? Many of us find that a decline in our health can make it increasingly hard to keep on top of our household chores. You might experience a sudden decrease in function after a surgery or illness, but it could also be a slow process where your energy drops over time, making it tricky to perform tasks that used to be easy. You might find it difficult to change the doona cover and sheets, mop the floors, or reach the ceiling fans to safely dust them.

We understand how important it is to have a pleasant, clean home to relax in. As part of our commitment to improving the lives of our clients, we are happy to help! Receiving a bit of help from a cleaner can transform your daily chores around your home from an unmanageable challenge into an easy, small set of tasks. Find out how we can help today.

Direct Support

2-24 hours, every day of the week. Support Workers can come to your home or accompany you anywhere you want to go.

Passionate and professional supports who absolutely love the work that they do. Building relationships with individuals is our absolute priority.

We match the skills of Support Workers to meet the needs of the individual, which means that we are always able to rise to the challenge. Our team have a vast range of skills and experience, therefore we are able to cater to your needs.

Community Access Support

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) aims to assist individuals with disabilities in participating in their communities through social and community services. It’s just different way of exploring, socializing, and experiencing new things!

This can include engaging in various experiences, such as:

Attending community events and activities
Taking art classes
Learning musical instruments
Going on trips – visiting family and friends
Grocery shopping, bank or post office
Attend medical appointments
Going to a café or restaurant
Going to the movies or a concert

We are here to assist you to pursue your life goals with the help of activities that have significance to you. Our main target is that you will enjoy all the activities and stay connected to the things you and the people who matter most. This not only helps you feel connected to other like-minded people and your community but can help with your overall wellbeing.

Group Skills

Group and centre-based activities are structured programs or sessions designed to engage and support individuals, often within a community or care setting. These activities are organised to promote social interaction, skill development, and a sense of belonging among participants.

Group-based activities typically involve bringing together a small or large group of individuals with common interests, goals, or needs. These activities can vary widely and may include workshops, classes, games, and recreational events. They offer an opportunity for people to connect, share experiences, and learn from one another.

Specialist Support Coordination

What’s the difference between a Specialist level 3 Coordinator and a level 2 Support Coordinator?

While they might seem similar, they do have different roles to play. You will find that a specialist may be funded in situations when there are additional complex needs or high risks. Specialist will be qualified and experienced practitioners such as Social workers, Behavioural Practitioners and Therapists.

They are expected to address complex barriers that might make it difficult for someone to implement their plan or get the supports that they need. A Specialist Coordination can support you to manage challenges you might have within your support environment which might include, justice, health, education, corrections or others.

Often there will be multiple stakeholders involved and there may also be some urgency to get things started or to resolve crisis situations. Specialist Support Coordinator is intensive and time limited.

Transport

Need someone to help with Disability Transport Services?

Travel options may seem simple and obvious to many people, but when you’re living with a disability mobility may be one of your many core struggles, getting from place to place can present a serious challenge and may face many obstacles in their mobility, including their ability to secure and access transportation, whether private or public.

We understand that dependable and accessible transport is a great enabler to independence and good quality of life, but personal circumstances may hinder your or a loved one’s ability to drive a car or ride public transport. You may also find that accessing other transportation options such as taxis are limited for you. This can lead to significant limitations when it comes to getting around, going to appointments, getting to and from work or school, travelling, shopping, or visiting friends and family.

Transport doesn’t need to be a challenge, with the help of transport services, we can open up a whole new level of independence. At our company, we are dedicated to providing the best disability transport services. Whether you or your loved one experiences a disability and has transport included in your NDIS plan, we can assist you with travel with our disability transport services.

Our Disability Transport Services offer accessible transportation options for individuals with disabilities or mobility issues. These services provide safe and reliable transportation to medical appointments, social activities, and other essential appointments for many people with disability, access to the community, and social, recreational, and economic participation is dependent on access to suitable transport. If you have transport included in your NDIS plan, we can assist you with travel to your activities within your community. We have a variety of transport options for individuals and groups in our wheelchair accessible bus and fleet. We also offer transport on a fee for service arrangement.

Training and Development

Fortitude Behavioural Consultants (FBC) has a suite of Learning and Development solutions targeted specifically to the needs of the disability sector. We can help build individual and organisational capability, allowing you to focus on providing the best services and support to people with disability.

Building a Better Future Together