Three members of staff from NHS Forth Valley were amongst the first graduates of a scheme designed to support workers who care for people with a learning disability who also present with challenging behaviours.
Senior nurse Caroline Gill (centre) and Personal Carers Coreen Irvine and Jane Blair are pictured receiving their awards from NHS Education for Scotland. They will now help implement the roll-out of an educational resource known as ‘ Improving Practice.’
The difficulties of caring for people with challenging behaviours is seen as a major issue and it is important to recognise that serious consequences can arise for those who need support. These include a risk of placement breakdown, neglect, abuse and social deprivation.
Training programme manager, Elaine Kwiatek, explained. “We had developed an earlier programme in Positive Behavioural Support for staff whose day-to-day job sees them working with people with various types of learning disability.
“Those who took part in the course found it invaluable and we decided to roll out the programme by training experienced learning disability nurses in NHSScotland to deliver it within their own board area, in hospitals and in community settings.”
Recruitment to Cohort Two will begin in autumn 2015 .For more information visit the education and training section of the NHS Education for Scotland website www.nes.scot.nhs.uk
