People Helping People™

Several months ago, Mae Lynn (this is a fictional name to protect confidentiality) experienced a serious increase in challenging behaviors and a reduction in life skills.

The behaviors included verbal aggression, screaming, crying, false accusations of physical and verbal abuse against her host home provider and mother, hallucinations and delusional thinking. She would see people from her past that were not there and imagine situations that never occurred, panicking as she went through the experience. All these occurred during a team meeting and Mae Lynn’s psychiatrist recommended immediate hospitalization. Mae Lynn herself said, “I have no control over my behavior. I want some help.”  

The host home placement of six years failed as a result.   When Mae Lynn was released from the hospital and moved into another host home, the problem behaviors continued to increase and her ability to take care of herself continued to decrease. Her psychiatrist and other team members felt that she was deteriorating to the point that she might need to go to a more supervised and restrictive setting. The second host home was on the verge of failing.

Support, Inc.’s Behavioral Services Team was consulted at this point and their goal became: develop positive behavior supports and implement a plan to stabilize and enhance Mae Lynn’s quality of life.  

First, the team figured out what things were working with Mae Lynn’s new host home family to support her when the challenging behavior happened. These included humor, being direct and positive affirmations. Then, they looked at the family dynamics to see how each person in the home influenced Mae Lynn or was influenced by her. Based on this, they made suggestions to ensure that they were all supporting one another and Mae Lynn with consistent approaches that tapped into Mae Lynn’s strengths as well as their own. This gave support and confidence to the family that they had the right instincts with what they were doing, yet shaped their approach to be in line with current behavioral science.  

Next, the Behavioral Services Team, Residential Coordinator and Mae Lynn’s host family brainstormed to find out what she was trying to get with those challenging behaviors and help her find new ways to get those things with more appropriate behaviors. The team also trained the host family in some techniques to deescalate her when she hallucinated, became delusional, paranoid or verbally aggressive.   The team also recommended the addition of outside community partners to help Mae Lynn reconnect with the community and work on positive social skills. Because the community partners were not caretakers, but young women outside of the host family and behavioral team, she felt less guarded. This enabled the community partners to reinforce appropriate behaviors with Mae Lynn without her realizing they were doing so.   The team also advocated strongly for follow-up on medical issues that could be affecting her behavior, namely the possibility that she was not getting enough oxygen while sleeping.  

All of this has, thankfully, turned Mae Lynne’s behaviors around completely. She now has an excellent relationship with her host family. They feel confident that they can serve her long-term and her placement is no longer in jeopardy. She is getting out in the community on a regular basis with her community partners, who are becoming her friends and helping her build friendships in the community. She is able to communicate her emotions freely instead of hiding behind verbal aggression, silent treatment, fake bizarre behaviors or presenting as if “everything’s OK.” Her physical health and general mood have improved tremendously. She is a different person!