We have posted previously about the use of active support which involves training staff in working practices and organisational procedures to improve levels of participation and increase levels of engagement in activities.

The purpose of the current study however was to look at the impact of active support approaches on other outcome measures.

The researchers worked with 30 people described as having severe and profound learning disabilities, all of whom lived in small group home settings. They used observational methodology and staff-rated measures, to look at the impact of person-centred active support on their lives.

They found that there were significant increases in the amount of assistance people received as well as in the quality of that assistance and that these changes went alongside significant increases in engagement, participation and choice-making opportunities.

They also discovered significant reductions in challenging behaviour and in particular, self-stimulatory behaviour.

Person-Centred Active Support – Increasing Choice, Promoting Independence and Reducing Challenging Behaviour, Beadle-Brown, J , in Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 25: 291–307.