Mental Health Nursing

Challenging behaviour can include any action that makes it difficult to provide healthcare for residents. Typically, this refers to behaviours that may be physical in nature, as well as both verbal and non-verbal outbursts. These incidents pose a threat not only to the resident being cared for, but nursing staff as well. 

Ethos Care Group train nurses to manage challenging behaviour in residents and ensure they receive the treatment they need in any circumstance. We help our nurses learn how to de-escalate potentially violent or dangerous situations and eliminate the risk of potential harm. 

We invest time into our residents to try to understand why someone displays challenging behaviours and what the triggers for this behaviour is. It could be for example that a resident if feeling anxious is bored or may be experiencing pain. Equally, it could be that they don’t like to be in larger groups or could even be something like not wanting to wear shorts or red socks.

At Ethos, we also fully understand that much challenging behaviour is due to environment. If someone is being cared for in the wrong environment this can lead to behavioural challenges. Therefore, our care centres are purpose built, with state-of-the-art design to ensure the appropriate environment for our residents.

We believe that employing methods such as distraction and non-confrontational, calming intervention enabling the focussing of a resident’s attention elsewhere is usually the most appropriate form of de-escalation and we train our staff to ensure they understand and practice these methods.