An incident at a local gym had led Clive to get banned. This prompted a referral to a behaviour
analyst within the organisation that provided him with support.
Assessments
showed that this incident had been Clive’s understandable reaction to a build
up of difficult experiences during that week. The teenagers living in his
local area were targeting Clive, they had kicked his door late at night,
stolen his lawnmower, let his guinea pigs out of their cages at night,
pressured him into giving them money and had even woken him up in the middle of
the night by standing in his bedroom.
To cap it all Clive had lost his wallet
at the gym the previous week and the receptionist had said that he couldn’t
come in without it!
Strategies from the behaviour support team
The behaviour analyst and Clive’s support worker, worked
with him to learn some strategies to deal safely with victimisation.
- Clive learnt to say “I don’t know you” and walk
away if teenagers asked him for money
- Clive learnt to call the police using a panic
button if someone was harassing him at home or by using a mobile phone when out
of the house on his own
- Clive used a social story to remind him what to
do when people harassed him in the street
Clive also worked on skills that he could use to
help himself when he was stressed about something:
- Clive practiced using his exercise equipment
when he got stressed
- He learnt to tell his support worker what had
happened to have made him stressed during the week so that they could help
- Clive learnt to record what had happened on a
Dictaphone so that he could tell someone about it later.
- Clive used role play at home to practice what he
should do when there were situations that stressed him out.
Once he had mastered
these skills he practiced these in the places where he would need to use
his skills.
Outcomes
Clive had no incidents for six months.
Clive is no longer making panicky phone calls to
his support worker and team leader.
Clive is now attending the gym again once or
twice a week with support from his support worker and is coping well with
this.
When Clive has encountered difficult situations
over recent months, e.g. thinking someone may have asked him for money, he has
handled these well, i.e. going straight home and letting someone know so that
they could inform the police.
Clive recently had to give video evidence to the
police related to his neighbour being assaulted and burgled and he remained
calm throughout and coped very well
Clive seems much more relaxed when out in the
community.
Clive’s support worker now feels confident to
use roleplay to help Clive understand new situations on her own
initiative.
Clive has finally secured funding to be able to
buy his own home, so he will soon be able to move to a better area.
Below, you can see Clive talking in a video about his home and his work.
