Culture – Behavior Support
RVI recognizes that the purpose of POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT is to support and assist individuals receiving services to manage their own behaviors to promote the growth, development and independence of those individuals and promote individual choice in daily decision-making, emphasizing self-determination and self-management. Staff is required to understand and follow approved Behavior Support plans for individuals receiving services. Appropriate staff will be trained and documented by the plan author or Service and Support Administrator prior to plan implementation.
In accordance with the rule addressing Behavior Supports of the Ohio Administrative Code, and the policies and procedures of OCBDD, this will be accomplished in such a way as to provide the supports and services needed for individuals with challenging behavior to achieve the greatest level of independent functioning, self-determination and community integration possible, while providing adequate safeguards and supervision to ensure that the health, welfare, due process, and civil and human rights are adequately protected. The intent is to eliminate the unnecessary use of and need for restraint, time-out and other restrictive, aversive or coercive interventions by increasing the quantity and quality of positive behavior supports for individuals with challenging behaviors.
RVI is committed to promoting a climate for behavior support that is characterized by:
- Interactions and speech that reflect respect, dignity, and a positive regard for the individual.
- Interactions which are appropriate for the age of the individual.
- The setting of acceptable behavioral standards for staff.
- Staff speech that is even-toned, made in positive and personal terms.
- Conversations with the individual rather than about the individual while in the individual’s presence.
- Respect for the individual’s privacy by not discussing the individual with someone who has no right to the information.
- The use of people-first language instead of referring to the individual by trait, behavior, or disability.
- Specifying and ensuring training for all persons employed by a provider who are responsible for implementing plans.
To this end, interventions that use the most common everyday consequences will be used and applied in the most normal integrated, community settings. These interventions will contain positive reinforcing components to teach desirable behaviors and may use aversive interventions only when these have been determined to be the least restrictive and least intrusive choices.
THE RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
I have the right to be treated nicely at all times and as an individual.
I have the right to a safe, clean home. If it is a licensed home, it will be checked every year by the state and by the local fire department.
I have a right to get meals that are healthful and good for me.
I have the right to go to a doctor or dentist when I need to as soon as I need to go.
I have the right to get people to help me with the way I talk, walk, or do things with my hands. I have the right to get people to help me with the way I act or the way I feel.
I have the right to accept help and training without it being forced on me.
I have the right to have some time to myself and a place to be by myself. I have the right to be alone with family and friends.
I have the right to use the telephone, write letters, or talk with anyone I want about any subject I want to discuss in a responsible way.
I have the right to keep things of my own that I choose to have.
I have the right to socialize and to be friends with both men and women.
I have the right to join in activities or do things that will help me grow to be the best person I can be.
I have the right to have a job and make money.
I have the right to be treated like everyone else under the law.
No one should hit me, hurt me, yell at me, or say terrible things to me.
I have the right to go to school or work setting and meet and work with other people. I have the right to programs that help me, and to go out on activities.
I have the right to help decide the things that will affect me.
I have the right to ask someone like my parents or an advocate or a friend to speak with me and/or for me and help me do things.
I have the right to have the facts in my file kept private.
I have the right to complain if I don’t agree with something, I also have the right to talk about my complaints without other people threatening me, making me change my mind, or getting me into trouble.
No one can give me medicine to control the way I act, tie me up, hold me down, or lock me up unless it is needed to keep me from hurting myself or others, or unless I have agreed and there is a written plan in place.
I have the right to learn about how laws are made, join in community decisions, vote for the people who make the laws, and be able to tell them how I feel about the laws.
I have the right to say no to being part of any study or experiment.