Sourcing residential care for a family member with complex behavioural needs isn’t an admission of failure; a good care home with empathetic and well-trained staff is ideally placed to care for people who are causing disruption to the lives of other family members.
Why opt for a care home?
Caring for someone with complex or challenging behaviour is difficult and stressful, particularly for family members, who are often unable to take an objective standpoint. Whether the challenging behaviour is the result of a young person with a learning disability or an older person with dementia, for example, many carers struggle to cope, finding that there is a knock-on effect that affects the wider family unit.
Many families feel that it is their duty to cope with challenging behaviour in their nearest and dearest, even though they have no prior training or experience in dealing with the sort of situations that can arise. Aggressive behaviour, inappropriate language, self-harming and disruptive episodes can quickly drain the carer’s resources, leaving them feeling fraught, fragile and in despair. This is perfectly understandable, and there’s nothing to be gained from giving yourself a hard time about it.
Arranging care in a residential home in London or elsewhere in the UK may feel like an admission of failure, but this is far from the case. In reality, a good care home is geared up to cope with the sorts of situations that most families find themselves unable to deal with, with highly skilled staff members who understand how to calm and defuse a potentially explosive situation. By dealing with complex behaviours day in, and day out, care, home staff, understand the best way to react in a given situation, preventing damage and harm to people and property alike.
The benefits of a care home
A good care home, with experienced and well-trained staff, is able to create a calm and inclusive atmosphere for residents, enabling them to become the best possible versions of themselves, with space to learn and grow and develop their innate talents.
Don’t be swayed by Victorian images of institutions designed to hide challenging behaviours behind four walls. Nowadays you’ll find a residential home in London or elsewhere that specialises in providing structured one-on-one support for those with complex behaviours, encouraging them to express their desires, needs and concerns in the most appropriate way, with targeted outcomes, so that every individual is supported in their progress.
A good care home will work to determine the reasons for challenging behaviour, which is seen as a need to communicate and will encourage the individual to learn new methods of expressing themselves, leading to better outcomes for the wider family too. By supporting and encouraging their care recipients, good care homes help them to uncover more appropriate ways of behaving over time.
Deciding on residential care isn’t easy, but the positive outcomes that it leads to help to reassure the family that they have made the best decision for their loved one, and for themselves too.
