How would i react if a mentally challenged person with disabilities starts to hit himself or others?

Question

if they are under my supervision as a job coach

Answer 1

depends, are you in charge of that person's care?

I should hope that if he has those type of behavoirs that he is supervised by someone who knows how to handle his behavoirs.

If you are not in charge of their care, your best bet is to walk away and ignore the situation.  Sometimes giving attention to it can make it worse.

Answer 2

hopefully there is a plan in place --especially if this has happened in the past---

your main objective is to redirect the behavior/diffuse the situation---

you need to identify teh trigger and remove the person from the situation if possible---

if it is a starnger you need to apologize/assist the consumer to apologize

you will need training in restaint if teh person cannot be redirected and continues to impose a threat

be prepared for police involvement if a starnger is involved-

afterward you would need to file an incident report with your agency

Answer 3

Stop them - put them in a time out area away from other staff or students. Try to calm them down. Find the reason for them hitting. Is something new? Is he/she stressed? Do not want to work? You need to find out what provoked the hitting.  I when throug pro-act training so you might try that for yourself or your staff. Pro-act is a program that teaches you how to defuse sisuations like. It is very helpful.

Good luck.

Answer 4

you try to stop them.  what is the situation?

Answer 5

typically if they are hitting themselves, something is wrong, obviously if they are hitting others as well. Something has changed from their element and they are reacting and letting you know the only way then can.

What to do: Get them away from that environment or situation. Pull them off to the side and calmly talk to them and get them to calm down. it could take a few minutes. Once they are calmed down ask them what happened and go from there. And see if you can't slowly ease them back to what they were doing before the outburst.

I had to go through CPI training for my job to learn how to react in situations like that. It's something you can look into.  

Answer 6

I've had to go through training for this many times as well, and it is sometimes best to handle it as others have suggested, but keep in mind it depends on what is written for that person's behavior plan.

Don't automatically go for talking to them unless you know they are capable of fully understanding the meaning of what you are saying, otherwise you're just giving them attention for it.

I would say the best bet--if you don't know their behavior plan, and just don't know how to react-- if its something that looks to be easily redirectable (you can block it, pull their hands down, etc), or if it is something that is INHERENTLY VERY DANGEROUS (like intense headbanging)--then stop them, or accommodate it so that it is not so hurtful (maybe you can't stop them from headbanging but you can pull them onto a carpet, or throw a pillow under between their head and the floor, etc.

Always block behaviors directed at others or remove the other person from the situation.