The CCE approach - Self-injurious behaviour

The 13th European Congress of Mental Health in Intellectual Disability (EAMHID) was held in Berlin from September 23- 25, 2021. The central theme was 'From Science to Practice'.
Peter Koedoot, Anouschka Jansen and Vanessa Olivier-Pijpers presented 'The CCE approach'. One of the themes of this approach is the 'Self-injurious behaviour' explained by Peter Koedoot, project manager expertise management at CCE.

Good practice

Self-injurious behaviour (SIB) may be the worst challenging behaviour exhibited by people with moderate to profound intellectual disability. Hard to watch, and difficult to prevent because continuous proximity is required to stop a person harming him/herself. Carers may also feel responsible for being unable to prevent it, resulting in overuse of restraints and poor quality of life. The Centre for Consultation and Expertise developed a good practice to deal with serious and persistent SIB. It is a methodical, multidisciplinary approach which stresses the importance of both personal and contextual factors. It is also a multi-theoretical approach in which different theories can be used to analyse SIB and to design interventions.  

From science to practice

Too often, it is assumed that SIB may be part of ‘who that person is’. This may result in poor interventions, overuse of restraints, and poor quality of life. Our aim is to provide everyone exhibiting serious and persistent SIB the help they need so they can achieve the best quality of life possible.