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Behaviour Support Alongside Cerebral Palsy
Behaviour Support for someone with cerebral palsy starts with putting a focus on the person. We checks for pain, any communication needs, fatigue, and any environment triggers that may be driving any behaviours of concern.
When someone with cerebral palsy is having a hard time, the people around them are often left guessing. Are they in pain? can I help ease their frustrations? Cerebral palsy is about more than movement and muscle tone. It also shapes how shares their needs, and how they take on the world.
Our practitioners work with children, teenagers, and adults with cerebral palsy across NSW and Tasmania.
Families, carers, and participants
For referrers and Support Coordinators
Our Behaviour Support team works with children, teenagers and adults with cerebral palsy, and with their families and support teams. Sessions run in clinic, at home, at school and in the community across NSW and Tasmania, and each plan is shaped around the person’s communication, sensory and physical needs.
How do I fund Behaviour Support?
Behaviour Support 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.
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Understanding Behaviours of Concern in Cerebral Palsy
01
Pain That Has Not Been Spotted
This is the one most often missed. Pain is common in cerebral palsy and it can come from muscle tightness, joint changes, hip problems, or reflux. It’s also hard to spot, especially when speech is affected, so it goes unchecked. A behaviour that looks like aggression to others is often the clearest way a person has to show that something hurts. We check for pain before we write a single strategy, because no behaviour plan works while pain is still the real cause.
02
A Need With No Easy Way to Say It
Many presentations of cerebral palsy affect speech. Putting words together can be tiring or simply not an option in the moment. When a person can’t easily say “I am in pain”, “I need a break”, or “this is too loud”, it comes through in behaviour instead. Fatigue plays a part too. Ordinary tasks take more energy, so by the afternoon there can be little left in the tank. What looks like refusal is often someone running on empty.
03
An Environment That Does Not Fit
It might be a doorway too narrow for a wheelchair, seating that gives the body no support, or an activity built for people who use their hands freely. When the setting shuts someone out, a strong reaction is a fair response to an unfair situation. Often it’s the room that needs to change, not the person in it.
04
Functional Behaviour Assessment
Before any plan, we work out what a behaviour is doing for the person. We watch across real settings: home, school, day program, community. We talk to the people who know them best, and we look at what happens before, during, and after a behaviour of concern. We take a careful look into the person’s world across several sessions, not a one-hour checklist. The plan that follows is built on what’s actually going on.
05
A Behaviour Support Plan Built Around the Person
Your plan is built around the person’s strengths, their communication, and the life they want a say in. It usually brings together a few things: getting pain looked at and managed, a reliable way to communicate, and changes to seating and the environment. It also sets a rhythm to the day that respects fatigue, builds the skills the person wants, and prepares calm, consistent responses for the hard moments. Where restrictive practices are in place now, the plan sets out how to step them back, safely and gradually.
06
One Team Under One Roof
Cerebral palsy touches movement, communication, daily living, pain, and energy all at once, so behaviour support on its own is rarely the whole answer. At Optimum Health Solutions, your behaviour support practitioner works in the same clinics as our Physiotherapy, Exercise Physiology, Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy, and Dietetics teams. The Physiotherapist who is managing spasticity and pain, the Speech Pathologist building a communication system, the Exercise Physiologist working on strength and stamina, and the behaviour support practitioner pulling it together can sit in the same case conference and line their goals up. You tell your story once.
Who We Work With
We work with people with cerebral palsy across ages and support needs, and with the families and carers around them.
Children showing distress, self-injury, or withdrawal tied to pain, frustration, or a communication barrier. Teenagers moving towards more independence and navigating the shift from paediatric to adult services. Adults in supported accommodation, day programs, or at home, where behaviours of concern are getting in the way of the life they want.
We also work with families and carers who are managing complex needs across several providers and feeling stretched thin. You don’t need to have it worked out before you get in touch. That part is on us.
The plan:
Your behaviour support plan sets out what’s driving the behaviour, strategies shaped around the person’s communication, sensory and physical needs, and who does what across home, school, and any other services.
We go through it with the people who use it, and we review it at each stage, because needs shift as the person grows.
Cerebral Palsy Behaviour Support Through the NDIS
Cerebral palsy is a recognised disability under the NDIS. Where it’s funded, Behaviour Support sits in the Capacity Building part of the plan. In newer NDIS (PACE) plans this is usually a dedicated Behaviour Support budget; older plans fund it under Improved Relationships. We’re a registered NDIS provider. If your plan doesn’t yet include behaviour support funding, your support coordinator or planner can request it at your next plan review, and we can help you describe what it’s for.
Your practitioner writes goals tied to real life, tracks progress against them, and prepares the reports your plan review needs. We work with self-managed, plan-managed, and NDIA-managed participants, and we handle the service agreements and invoicing so you can focus on the support itself.
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 Behaviour Support and Cerebral Palsy
What is Behaviour Support for cerebral palsy?
Why do people with cerebral palsy show behaviours of concern?
Does the NDIS fund behaviour support for cerebral palsy?
Can Behaviour Support work alongside Physiotherapy and other therapies?
How can Behaviour Support help someone with cerebral palsy who communicates without speech?
Can adults with cerebral palsy access Behaviour Support?
We feel like nothing has worked. Is it worth getting in touch?
Reviewed by Rachel Hardcastle
OPTIMUM HEALTH SOLUTIONS
Rachel has worked in Behaviour Support for over 16 years, where her experience has included complex and forensic work. Rachel’s approach is entirely person-centred, meaning her practice starts and ends with the person, building support around them. Rachel works clinically and leads the development of the Behaviour Support team at Optimum Health Solutions, supporting practitioners to grow and do their best work with the people they see.
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