Health and Social Care Workers’ Understanding of the Meaning and Management of Challenging Behaviour in Learning Disability Services

Abstract

The present study sought to investigate the relationship between professional background, length of experience, understanding of the term ‘challenging behaviour’ and opinions of factors important in managing challenging behaviour in people with learning disabilities. Health workers identified significantly more definition criteria than social care workers, yet no significant difference was found between their overall scores for management criteria. Rather, the emphasis of their knowledge of management principles appeared to be different. A significantly greater percentage of health workers identified management criteria relating to psychological principles, while a greater percentage of social care workers identified that of reactive responses. Health workers seemed more likely to identify challenging behaviour in terms of its impact on the service while social care workers appeared to concentrate on the type of behaviour evident. Finally, the longer the experience of the social care worker, the higher their overall scores for the definition and management criteria. However, no significant relationship was found between experience and overall scores amongst health workers. Implications of the findings are discussed.