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Center for Disabilities Studies expands community programs

Michael Partie
4:17 p.m., Jan. 21, 2004--Requests from community service organizations have prompted the Delaware Division of Child Mental Health Services to contract with UD’s Center for Disabilities Studies to develop “Positive Behavior Intervention” (PBI), a certificate program that teaches techniques supporting adaptive, socially appropriate behavior while reducing inappropriate, destructive behavior.

“The need for the PBI program is a call from the community,” Michael Gamel-McCormick, director of the Center for Disabilities Studies, said. “Child-care providers, mental health providers, youth program specialists and many others who work with children and adolescents have asked for the skills and knowledge to be able to prevent challenging behavioral situations and to provide children and adolescents with strong, positive social skills.”

The series of workshops began last summer and is being taught by Gary Allison, instructor in UD’s College of Education, and Michael Partie, a training coordinator with the center’s Community Education Project. The program has drawn participants from agencies across the state.

“The response has been very positive,” Partie said. “Participants report the training to be invaluable in supporting children with challenging behaviors and complex treatment needs.”

Besides PBI, the center has established Positive Behavior Support in the Community (PBSC). It offers community organizations that work with adults a variety of training and technical assistance services, including Therapeutic Options, a program that teaches the skills needed to build humane, respectful and violence-free therapeutic and educational environments. Therapeutic Options focuses on the person as an individual and teaches health-care workers to identify and manage outbursts that are triggered by the environment and how to support alternative adaptive skills and behaviors.

In an article published in the August issue of the “Archives of
Psychiatric Nursing,” researchers Eileen F. Morrison and Colleen Carney Love compared four of the most widely used programs in the United States. Therapeutic Options was the most highly rated program in the study. The authors cited the program’s well-developed philosophy, strong relationship component, inclusion of an evidence-based positive behavior support model and commitment to measuring outcomes.

Article by Barbara Garrison
Photo by Kathy Atkinson

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