Managing Challenging Behaviours

This online course is designed for UK adult social care workers (care assistants, support workers, senior care workers, team leaders, and non-clinical staff who interact directly with people receiving care) across care settings, including care homes, supported living, extra care housing, and domiciliary care. People may express distress or unmet needs through behaviours that challenge (e.g., agitation, aggression, resistance to care, shouting, absconding attempts, self-harm risk behaviors). Skills for Care stresses that challenging or distressed behaviour often has a reason—sometimes as communication or expression of pain or anxiety—and that responses should protect human rights. At the same time, adult social care services operate under clear regulatory safeguards: improper treatment can include unlawful restraint or disproportionate restrictive practice, and providers must have systems to prevent and respond to abuse and improper treatment. Staff also have a right to safe working conditions; workplace violence and aggression in health and social care is treated by HSE as a significant hazard that must be assessed and controlled.