HOME > BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT > ADULTS
Adult Positive Behaviour Support
Behaviour Support for adults starts with the person’s rights and builds a plan any support worker can follow. Our practitioners work out the reasons behind behaviours of concern, build a person-centred plan, and coach the people around the adult to respond the same way every shift. We work across NSW and Tasmania, with NDIS and private clients welcome.
When behaviours of concern show up in a group home, a day program, or a workplace, the response is too often built around control rather than understanding. Maybe a plan was written years ago and nobody has reviewed it since, or no plan exists at all and staff respond on instinct, differently every shift.
We work with adults with intellectual disability, autism, brain injury, psychosocial disability, and other conditions where behaviours of concern affect daily life, in the clinic, at home, and in the community.
Adults with disability and family members
For support coordinators, plan managers, and group home providers
Our Behaviour Support team works with adults with disability whose behaviour is putting their housing, relationships or independence under pressure. We deliver support in clinic, at home, in supported accommodation and in the community across NSW and Tasmania, and we work with the adult first, not just the people around them.
How do I fund Behaviour Support?
Behaviour Support for adults at Optimum Health Solutions is usually funded through the NDIS.
NDIS participants fund it from Capacity Building. Newer PACE plans list it as Behaviour Support, and older plans list it as Improved Relationships.
Private sessions are available too, with no referral needed, and you will get a clear picture of the costs before you book.
If it is not in your plan yet, your support coordinator can ask for it at the next plan review.
If you are not sure which funding applies to you, call us on 1800 678 647 or email hello@opt.net.au. We will sort it out before your first appointment.
Not Sure What Fits Your Plan?
1800 678 647
Don't want to call? Click here to
Fill in an enquiry form.
We Can't Wait to Meet You
Where adult behaviours of concern show up
01
Supported Accommodation (group homes)
Many adult Behaviour Support referrals come from group home providers. Behaviours of concern in shared living affect everyone in the house: the other residents, the support workers, and the person themselves.
Aggression towards staff, damage to property, deep withdrawal, and refusal to take part in daily routines are common. The work is to balance the rights of the individual with the safety of everyone who lives and works there.
02
Supported Independent Living
Adults living independently with drop-in support face different pressures. Isolation, unstructured time, and inconsistent staff can trigger behaviours that put the person’s tenancy at risk.
Here, a plan focuses on building daily living skills, community connection, and self-regulation strategies that hold up when no one else is in the room.
03
Day programs and employment
Behaviour can be the single biggest barrier to work and community participation. An adult who wants to work but becomes overwhelmed in busy places, or who finds the social side of a workplace hard, needs targeted support.
Behaviour Support works on the specific triggers in those settings so the person can take part in the life they choose.
04
Community participation
We support adults who may find triggers when performing everyday activities such as:
- using public transport
- going to the shops
- getting to appointments
- visiting friends and family
To us these moments are ordinary parts of life. However, when behaviour and triggers get in the way of it someone living safely and independently, Behaviour Support supports them to plan and clean out the barriers facing them.
04
Restrictive practices and the duty to reduce them
Adults with disability are among the people most likely to be subject to restrictive practices, from chemical and physical restraint to locked doors.
Under the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, every behaviour support plan that involves a restrictive practice has to include strategies to reduce or remove it over time. In residential settings, a controlled trial of staff-delivered behaviour support for adults with intellectual disability found gains in self-determination and personal development.
04
Support worker turnover
Support worker turnover
Ageing and changing needs. Pain, cognitive change, reduced mobility, and more complex medication can all drive behaviour that looks new. A plan written at twenty-five won’t fit at fifty, so we review plans with ageing in mind.
How Behaviour Support helps adults
Why adult Behaviour Support is different. An adult has legal rights, a personal history, and the right to make decisions other people might disagree with, including the right to take risks and to say no. A good plan works within those rights, using supported decision-making so the person’s voice stays at the centre. Many adults are also living under plans written five or ten years ago, while their needs and living situation have moved on. A plan review is a clinical necessity, not a box to tick.
Ageing and changing needs. Pain, cognitive change, reduced mobility, and more complex medication can all drive behaviour that looks new. A plan written at twenty-five won’t fit at fifty, so we review plans with ageing in mind.
Seven disciplines, one team. Adult behaviours of concern rarely have a single cause. At Optimum Health Solutions, your Behaviour Support practitioner sits alongside our Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Exercise Physiologists, Dietitians, Podiatrists, and Speech Pathologists. When behaviour has roots in pain, daily living, communication, or environment, our clinicians coordinate so nothing falls through the gaps.
The plan:
The behaviour support plan sets out what’s driving the behaviour, the strategies that reduce it, any restrictive practices with a clear path to reduce them, and instructions a support worker can follow from their first shift.We train the team face to face, and we review the plan as needs, health, and living situations change.
Adult behaviour support through the NDIS
NDIS. Behaviour Support is funded under Capacity Building. In newer NDIS (PACE) plans it sits in a dedicated Behaviour Support budget; older plans fund it under Improved Relationships. Your plan needs to include that funding. If it doesn’t, your support coordinator can request it at your next plan review. We work with plan-managed, agency-managed, and self-managed NDIS participants.
NDIS
Referrals
14 clinics across NSW & Tasmania
Email us
hello@opt.net.au
Speak to us
1800 678 647
Get in Touch.
Where we offer Behaviour Support
Common questions about adult Behaviour Support
What is Behaviour Support for adults?
How is Behaviour Support different for adults compared to children?
Does the NDIS fund Behaviour Support for adults?
Can Behaviour Support reduce restrictive practices?
What if the behaviour support plan was written years ago?
Reviewed by Rachel Hardcastle
You May Also Like:
Speech and Language Development
Most parents who ask about speech and language development are not worried about a textbook. They are worried about their own child. Should a 2-year-old be putting words together? Is
The Importance of Literacy Development
If you have a young child, you have probably wondered when reading is supposed to click, and whether the bedtime stories, alphabet songs and questions about every street sign are
Speech Pathology Home Practice
If your child sees a Speech Pathologist once a week for 45 minutes, that session is a small slice of their waking week. The rest of their speech and language