Does Positive Behaviour Support provided by a community team improve outcomes for adults with intellectual disabilities?

Abstract

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) is proposed as the model of care for adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) whose behaviour challenges others. In this study we considered how much change was observed in 16 clients presenting to a community learning disabilities team with challenging behaviour, and receiving PBS, as measured on the HoNOS-LD, a generic outcome measure. Clear improvements in behavioural and emotional functioning were identified for all clients. Quality of life and communicative abilities showed an interaction of length of involvement, with greater change in clients receiving PBS for more than one year. The pre-post effect size (Cohen’s d) for change in Total HoNOS-LD Score was 0.86 (large). We discuss the potential implications and limitations of this study.