MNPBS Glossary
This glossary contains the definitions of all the terms presented in the HCBS and Community-based supports modules in one place. For more description and information, check out the modules in the Team Training section of the website.
ABC Chart: A tool used in Functional Behavioral Assessment or FBA that records information while observing behavior that includes antecedents, the behaviors observed, and consequences that follow challenging behavior. An ABC Chart is used to develop a hypothesis statement about the function maintaining challenging behavior.
Accreditation: When an organization performs an assessment of HCBS and compares the results to the recognized standards. An organization that achieves accreditation has provided evidence to an outside association or group in order to receive formal confirmation that the organization is meeting regulatory requirements and high standards of practice.
Active Listening: Concentrating on what another person is sharing in way that makes it clear to that person that you are interested in what they are telling you. Active listening can include both verbal and nonverbal signals that show a person you are fully attending to what is being said.
Action Planning: An action plan is used to organize the work that needs to be done by breaking down a more complex task into smaller steps. Action plans are often used to keep a team focused and to monitor progress over time.
Alternative and Assistive Communication: Alternative and Assistive Communication Devices, sometimes referred to as AAC, refer to strategies, devices, and tools that replace verbal communication. AAC can be based on simple photographs or pictures or might include devices that speak in words and phrases, as directed by a person who is having trouble.
Antecedent: A stimulus is a verbal cue, physical prompt, person or event that precedes a behavior.
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA): Applied behavior Analysis or ABA is used to teach skills such as communication, self-care, communication and social skills, and academics. The practice relies on the principles of learning theory to prevent challenging behavior and improve quality of life. Different forms or models of ABA have evolved over time to support children and adults. A few examples include Discrete Trial Training, Pivotal Response Treatment, and the Early Start Denver Model.
Assertive Community Treatment: Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) improves outcomes for people with severe mental illness and may be more likely to be at-risk of hospitalization and other negative life outcomes including possible involvement in the criminal justice system. The practice involves forming a multidisciplinary team including community outreach and action planning.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication: Refers to tools and strategies used to help a person communicate. Augmentative strategies are added to a person’s speech to assist with communication. Alternative methods are used instead of speech. AAC can have low costs and low technology-based strategies (gestures, writing, pointing to pictures) or can involve a higher level of technology (computers, ipads, communication devices).
Baseline: Using data collected during a period of time before any changes occur in a setting to compare to data collected after a change has been introduced.
Behavior Specific Praise: A positive statement that involves acknowledging a behavior in an observable and specific manner using a sincere and enthusiastic tone that is tailored to the preferences of that person. For example, “John thank you for holding the door open for me, that makes me feel so valued by you!” It is important to use this concept while taking into consideration cultural differences and personal preferences.
CARF International: A nonprofit organization that assists organizations in improving the quality of services provided to people with disabilities, addiction and substance abuse, home and community services, retirement living, and other human services. Organizations that meet the CARF standards are showing that the services provided are meeting the high standards.
Challenging Behaviors: Behaviors that are of concern either to one’s self or by the people who are living and working with a person. Everyone engages in behaviors that are problematic at some point in life. A behavior becomes challenging if it interferes with quality of life, health and wellness, or safety.
Charting the LifeCourse: A person-centered planning process that can be used to support people with disabilities or mental health issues with their families. LifeCourse tools are used to help children and adults and their families organize ideas, think about their values, and identify goals for improving quality of life. Parents, case managers, mental health professionals, teachers, family members and friends, and anyone interested work together in exploring ways to help a person navigate their life and advocate for changes in supports as needed.
Civic Organizations: Refers to nonprofit organizations in the community that promote educational, recreational, and social welfare purposes. Civic Organizations include businesses, associations, clubs, volunteer organizations, veterans’ organizations, and other groups that improve neighborhoods.
Coaches or Coaching: The act of supporting a person in learning a new skill while working directly in educational or service settings. Two types of coaching are often described: 1) a peer-to-peer interaction process where one person with more information about a practice shares how to engage in skills as a way to learn together over time, and 2) an expert-driven approach where a person who has mastered skills related to a practice is modeling and providing feedback to another person, usually in a formal and systematic manner. Research supports the use of coaching strategies as a sustainable method that ensures a practice will be used and maintained in HCBS over Culture of Safety.
Council on Accreditation: An organization that helps organizations provide high standards of service and continuous improvement. Organizations that seek support from the Council on Accreditation are seeking to meet regulatory requirements, reduce duplication of oversight, support staff members, and improve outcomes for people served.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: This type of therapy addresses the relationship between one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. The goal is to target current problems a person is having and to assist this person in changing their behaviors and/or thoughts that are causing challenges for them in everyday life.
Cognitive Processing Therapy: A type of cognitive behavior therapy that helps people learn how to change beliefs related to past trauma.
Community-Based Positive Supports: Refers to strategies used to improve quality of life and decrease the likelihood of challenging behaviors. Each person is different and may benefit from different types of practices that have been shown to be effective in research studies.
Consequence: The stimulus or event that occurs immediately following a behavior.
Contextual Fit: The extent to which a positive behavior support plan is a good fit for the cultural values, needs, skills of people who will implement the plan and whether the resources are sufficient for implementation.
Cultural Competence: A culturally-competent organization has defined the values, attitudes, behaviors, systems, and policies needed to work with people across cultures and to value diversity. Assessment processes and data are used to adjust, address, and adapt to differences from diverse cultural viewpoints, and to work toward improving racial equity and racial justice.
Cultural Diversity: When groups of people in a community or organization share different cultural or ethnic backgrounds it is referred to as cultural diversity. A group of people representing a cultural group can share similar traits or interests. Examples include ethnicity, religion, language, sexual orientation, age, disability, health and wellness issues.
Cultural Responsiveness Strategies: This term refers to the ability of people or organizations to learn about and become more aware of one’s own and other persons’ cultural values in ways that are respectful and contribute to a multicultural community. Being culturally responsive helps people to become more aware of implicit bias and systemic racism and to act in ways that can improve outcomes for people of color
Culture of Safety: Providers who provide a Culture of Safety acknowledge that the work carries some high risk in the tasks the employee carry out. They also provide a culture that is blame-free, whereas people are able to report errors or near misses with out fear of reprimand or punishment. It encourages people across the organization to collaborate and seek solutions together in the spirit of safety for everyone. Organizations who are committed to a culture of safety commit resources to address safety concerns.
Cultural Values: The core beliefs and ideals that a person has that remain stable and consistent over time. Understanding our own cultural values can explain how and why we are responding to another person in either a positive or negative manner. Being aware of similarities and differences in cultural values in ourselves and others helps us to become more culturally responsive.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy: This practice refers to a type of cognitive behavioral treatment originally used to support people with borderline personality disorder. Over time, this practice has been expanded to support people with a range of issues that are related to self-regulating behavior. People who learn to self-regulate can recognize and cope better with strong emotions. Dialectical Behavior Therapy or DBT has been used to address a number of mental health issues including post-traumatic stress, binge eating, depression and substance misuse. The main goal of dialectical behavior therapy is to learn four strategies: 1) develop skills to regulate emotions, 2) practice mindfulness skills that help people to live in the moment, 3) increase the ability to tolerate distress, and 4) expand relationship-building skills. Therapy can involve working in groups to learn new behavioral skills, meeting for individual therapy, and engaging in coaching sessions.
Direct Observation: Observing an individual to clearly identify when problem behaviors occur, what happens right before a problem behavior, what the problem behavior looks like, and how people respond to the occurrence of problem behavior. Direct observation data are used to develop a hypothesis about why problem behavior occurs and to confirm that a hypothesis is correct.
Direct Support Professional: A person who works with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to achieve their highest potential is referred to as a direct support professional (DSP). The role of the DSP is to support people in living their own lives, making important life choices, and supporting them to live independent and inclusive lives.
Empathy: This skill is described as the ability to feel, understand, and sense another person’s emotions. People who are considered high in empathy can imagine what another person is feeling and place themselves in another person’s position and try to experience the same emotions. Three types of empathy include cognitive (knowing how someone feels), emotional (having the same feelings as another person), and compassionate (being moved to help a person if we can).
Evaluation Plan: An approach to organizing the ongoing assessment of practices by explaining what is being evaluated, describing evaluation questions that identify measures and create a plan to collect, summarize, and use data to improve HCBS outcomes. The evaluation plan addresses how data are used for decision making in meetings throughout the year and as part of an annual evaluation.
Evidence-based practices: The American Psychological Society defines evidence-based practice as:
“Evidence-based practice in positive behavior support is defined as the integration of rigorous science-based knowledge with applied expertise driven by stakeholder preferences, values, and goals within natural communities of support.”
Facilitator: A person who works with a group of people to achieve an outcome. Facilitators often use agendas to guide the flow of the meeting and make sure that the group stays on task and that everyone has a chance to participate in the conversation.
Fidelity of Implementation: A process for showing evidence that you are implementing a practice in the way a practice is intended. Tools used to assess fidelity can be used at an organizational level with teams, to evaluate individual plans, and for specific interventions that are put in place to support a person.
Functional Analysis: An experimental process that demonstrates the relation between challenging behavior and environmental events. There are different ways to do functional analysis (FA). However, the FA process must be overseen and run by a person with a high level of expertise. Most providers conduct a functional behavior assessment involving interviews, questionnaires, and direct observation. A functional analysis may be needed in situations where challenging behavior is complex and/or the functional behavioral assessment does not result in a clear hypothesis.
Function-Based Thinking: A way of thinking about what a challenging behavior is communicating for a child or adult receiving support. People engage in behavior that helps they to achieve something they need. Function-based thinking means that we observe behavior to better understand whether a person is communicating that they need something (such as attention from others, or access to something).
Functional Behavioral Assessment or FBA: A process that involves gathering information to understand why a challenging behavior occurs (its function). The FBA involves indirect methods for collecting information including interviews, surveys, and record reviews. Direct observation provides objective information about the challenging behavior and confirms a hypothesis statement that includes a setting event, antecedent, a definition of the challenging behavior, and the consequences maintaining the behavior. The FBA is used to brainstorm interventions that everyone uses to create new positive social interaction patterns together.
Generalization: Generalization in the context of a positive support plan refers to the application of skills, techniques, learning, etc. to multiple settings. For example, if the use of strategies to help reduce anxiety (e.g., use of a visual timer, self-talk scripts, completion of checklists, and advance access to schedules) is successful in a home environment for an individual with autism, then these same strategies can be “generalized” (i.e., utilized) in a work environment
Graphic Facilitator: A person who guides a group of people by capturing in pictures, drawings, and with short words and phrases what is being said during a meeting or conversation.
Groupthink: A way of thinking that team members adopt to conform and avoidance of conflict related to diverse opinions. Team members avoid disagreement and may become convinced that the group is better than others without basing this judgement on fact. Groupthink can result in the team choosing to ignore the moral or ethical consequences of team decisions, as well as reduced critical thinking, leading to poor decision making.
Helping Relationship Questionnaire (HRQ): Is a tool that promotes alliance between people providing support and the people receiving support. The person who provides the support recognizes that they have more to learn about who the relationship is working for the person receiving support. Then involves the person who provides supports, either on their own or with help from someone else identifies ways to improve the quality of the relationship, including dependability, trustworthiness, and genuine interest in the person receiving support.
Historical Trauma: Refers to a cumulative experience of psychological injury that crosses generations and has changed how someone responds to everyday life experiences. Historical trauma can disrupt the traditional expression of values and routines, fracture community cohesiveness, and result in psychological effects that have a negative impact on quality of life. Substance abuse and post traumatic stress disorder are just two examples of the impact of historical trauma.
Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS): Federal, state, local, and tribal governments develop and finance Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) to help ensure people across the lifespan can get long-term supports and services in their homes and communities instead of within institutional settings if that is their choice. These services help people live their lives as independently as possible. Examples of services include: medication management support, assistance in preparing meals and shopping in the community, or receiving access to evidence-based practices that help people achieve the highest quality of life possible.
Hypothesis Statement: A statement regarding what may be maintaining a challenging behavior that is created as part of a Functional Behavioral Assessment or FBA. This hypothesis statement includes information about the setting events related to the challenging behavior, the antecedents that trigger challenging behavior, a description of the challenging behavior, and the consequences maintaining these challenges.
Important For: The term “Important For” refers to those things that are needed to help keep people safe and that ensure mental and physical wellness. Examples of what is “Important For” a person can include: ensuring basic safety at home and in the community, maintaining daily hygiene that prevents serious pain or illness, taking medications that keep a person alive and healthy, using mental health practices that prevent severe mental illness such as depression or substance abuse, and making sure a person is considered a valued part of the community.
Important To: The term “Important To” refers to those things that make us happy, content, gives us purpose and meaning to our day, and makes life enjoyable. Examples of what is “Important To” us include: favorite items or belongings, places we choose to visit, events and activities we enjoy, a feeling of having social status in our community, the ability to predict and control our day, choosing a preferred rhythm and pace in life, honoring our routines and rituals, and finding and maintaining key relationships.
Individual Education Plan: A document developed to support a child with a disability in an educational context who is receiving specialized services. An IEP is a special education plan that includes instruction, supports, and the services a student needs to be successful in school.
Integrated Support Star (Charting the Lifecourse): The integrated Support Star is a tool that can be used in several types of situations. It can be used for problem-solving real-life situations and issues. It is used to integrate, connect and leverage supports for a good life. This tool can be used with anyone.
Level 2 Change: Requires a director, CEO, or other leader because the changes that are made address policies or procedures within an organization or require allocation of resources. Level 2 changes are used to change how responsive organizations are to supporting person-centered practices.
Level 3 Change: Is made by larger national, state, or federal systems to make it easier for organizations to be person-centered.
LifeCourse (Charting the LifeCourse): A person-centered planning process that can be used to support people with disabilities or mental health issues with their families. LifeCourse tools are used to help children and adults and their families organize ideas, think about their values, and identify goals for improving quality of life. Parents, case managers, mental health professionals, teachers, family members and friends, and anyone interested work together in exploring ways to help a person navigate their life and advocate for changes in supports as needed.
Marginalized Communities: Populations or groups of people who have be excluded from social, educational, economic, and other elements of general society. A marginalized community may be at risk for exclusion due to age, different abilities, health and wellness, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, and immigration status.
Mentors or Mentoring: A process that involves people with expertise and training in a particular practice who provide training to others, oversee coaching systems, and helps ensure that fidelity of implementation is achieved in HCBS and remains at high levels over time.
Mindfulness: A therapeutic strategy that involves focusing one’s awareness on the present moment. Mindfulness helps people to accept thoughts and feelings and observe what they are thinking and feeling. When a person achieves this mental state and practices it over time, this practice can help them manage strong emotions, and decrease anxiety, stress, and depression.
Motivational Interviewing: Motivation interviewing is an evidence based practice that provides a collaborative and goal-oriented approach for communicating with someone with a focus on the language of change. This approach helps a person strengthen a personal motivation for working on a specific goal. The focus is on helping people explore their own reasons for change while creating a setting that creates a sense of acceptance and compassion.
Natural Supports: Refers to the relationships and connections with people from everyday contact in the community that provides support to a person or family. Examples of natural supports include neighbors who might take a person shopping when they are planning to go shopping themselves, people who are part of support groups who offer to make personal connections with another person between group meetings, or business owners in local shops who may need assistance completing work.
One Page Description: Information often one page in length that captures important details about a person including sections to organize simple summaries. These sections can include what people like about me, what is important to me, and what you can do to support me. These descriptions have been used to support a variety of people across the lifespan who receive services and to support HCBS staff, county, or state professionals.
Operant Learning: Operant learning relies on reinforcement and punishment to increase or decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring. This type of learning is derived from a functional behavioral perspective and assumes that behaviors are maintained by the environment.
Operational Definition: Defining a challenging behavior so that it can be measured consistently from observer to observer. An operational definition is objective and clearly describes what the challenging behavior looks like, when it begins and ends, and the level of intensity. Sometimes includes examples and nonexamples of the behaviors that are considered challenging.
Outcome Measures: Changes that occur as a result of person-centered and positive support practices. These changes may be captured using quantitative data or qualitative data. Examples include changes in social and emotional skills, increases in staff retention, increases in satisfaction, improvement in quality of life.
Outcome Statements: Outcome Statements in person-centered practices are broad, value based sentences that help create a vision for the future. Outcome Statements in these modules are organized into four areas: people supported, people providing services, the provider organization, and the community.
PATH: PATH is a person-centered planning process created to support people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities identify a vision for their future. A PATH facilitator starts by talking with a person about their dream or vision around a specific area. The person will choose who they want involved in the planning process. The facilitator leads the person’s team through the steps involved in the PATH including discussing what is happening now, who should be enrolled in helping to make the dream a reality and mapping out the 3 and 6-month goals that will create momentum. Teams often use PATH process as a way to improve HCBS.
Performance-Based Staff Development: Performance-based management staff development is used to provide evidence that training in person-centered and positive support practices is resulting in observable change. A group developing performance based staff development will start by defining the mission and goals for the targeted training. Measures are designed to show that there are changes in staff behavior while supporting people receiving services. Data are used on a regular basis to assess progress, adjust the training, and celebrate successes. Strategies for recognizing and rewarding staff who are actively embedding new skills into their everyday work are highly visible and data are used to hold everyone accountable for creating a person-centered and positive culture.
Person-Centered Organization: Many people believe the services they provide are already person-centered. It is also true that we can always improve how we provide services. Members of a person-centered organization actively choose to build on existing strengths using a continuum of strategies that helps with relationship building and improves quality of life for people receiving services as well as for staff and families who support them. The goal of the organization-wide team is to create strategies that can help staff and the people being supported to work together to create a plan for improving person-centered outcomes.
Person-Centered Plan: A person-centered plan is a process that is used to create a plan for a positive and meaningful life for someone by building on his or her interests and strengths. There are different methods that can be used to help a person create their dreams for a better future. The person who asks for a person-centered plan chooses the people who will attend the meeting, the facilitator, and the location where the event is held. The goal of a person-centered plan is to create a set of actions that will help a person live their best life. There a many planning models that can be used to guide a meeting. However, the best person-centered planning process uses elements from different approaches to meet the needs of each person.
Person-Centered Practice: Include three types of strategies…
- Person-Centered Strategies that everyone can use to help people learn about what brings joy to someone and makes life worth living. These tools are also used to find out what is important to a person as well as understanding their needs for health, safety, and well-being.
- Person-Centered Planning is a process that is used to create a plan for a positive and meaningful life for someone by building on his or her interests and strengths. There are different methods that can be used to help a person create their dreams for a better future.
- Person-Centered Organization Changes address how services and supports are planned and delivered. Changes that are made include fixing policies, adding ongoing opportunities for learning, and building community supports. Services for people across the lifespan are changed in ways that improve quality of life outcomes.
Person-Centered Thinking: The foundational value-based skills that change the way in which someone sees another person that makes it possible for person-centered plans to be effective. Tools used in Person-Centered Thinking encourage active listening and relationship building and includes problem solving in ways that supports a deeper understanding of what is important to a person . The goal of person-centered thinking is to understand who someone is by their strengths and abilities, and what they can contribute.
Personal Care Attendant: A term used to describe a position involving a staff person trained to provide HCBS services to people who are living in homes in the community. Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) support people with physical, mental health related, or intellectual and developmental disabilities with the everyday tasks that help them to live in the community
Positive Behavior Support: A framework used to improve the quality of a person’s life and prevent or decrease challenging social interactions. The tools and strategies used in positive behavior support encourage social and communication skills and involve changing social settings to prevent challenging behaviors. Positive behavior support is based on research from areas including biomedical and behavioral science. Research also guides how positive behavior support is implemented in education and human service settings using a tiered model with interventions that gradually increase based on each person’s unique needs. The universal level, or tier one, includes interventions for improving the quality of life and social interactions for everyone within a provider setting. The second tier involves monitoring HCBS data to identify problems that a person might have as early as possible and to intervene when challenges are still minor. The third tier is used to create individualized plans for each person who needs more intense supports.
Positive Reinforcement: Positive reinforcement describes the use of ‘positive’ consequences following desired behavior, or closer approximations to desired behavior. The term ‘positive’ refers to the addition of something (activity, tangible item, attention from other person) following the desired behavior. Positive reinforcement can be used with individuals or in groups (such as in a classroom). Positive reinforcement can be used to increase prosocial behaviors, such as communication, cooperation, self-regulation (such as paying attention for longer periods of time), tolerance to things in the environment beyond our control (such as tolerance to transitioning activities), and academic skills.
Positive Supports: Refers to all practices that include the following characteristics:
- Person- centered interventions that demonstrate cultural competence and respect for human dignity
- Evidence- based and promising practices
- Include strategies for ongoing assessment and monitoring at individual and organizational levels
- Are often implemented in combination with more than one practice supports.
Positive Support Practices: The term positive support refers to practices that are: a) person-centered, family-centered, student-centered, and community-centered, b) evidence-based with research studies that show how effective an approach is and who benefits from the practice, c) sensitive and respectful to the unique culture of each person involved, d) adapted and improved over time using data to guide use, and e) often implemented with other practices within complex everyday settings.
Psychological First Aid: This evidence-informed approach helps people who are experiencing disaster and related trauma. Eight actions in Psychological First Aid include: 1) initiate contact and engagement with people experiencing trauma, 2) address safety and comfort, 3) work to stabilize people who may be overwhelmed or disoriented, 4) gather information about current needs and concerns, 5) provide practical assistance, 6) connect people with social supports, 7) provide information on coping and stress reduction, and 8) link survivors with available services needed now or in the future.
Qualitative Data: Information that is used to better understand the perceptions and emotional states of people and that seeks to capture the details of something that is being evaluated. Examples of qualitative measures include interviews with one person or groups, reviewing documents to assess whether changes have occurred, written descriptions of a situation or setting that occur in rich detail, or case studies and stories used to assess organize what is being learned by grouping into categories or codes and looking for themes.
Quality of Life: This is a common term used to describe how a person experiences their standard of health and wellbeing. Quality of life can be broken down into domains: emotional wellness, social interactions, work and employment, financial status, living environment, physical health, intellectual stimulation, and spiritual growth.
Quantitative Data: Information that is measured and results are shown using numbers to assess the amount of quantity of something. Examples of quantitative data include staff attrition numbers in a given year, the frequency of incidents that represent challenging social interactions, or how many people report improved quality of life scores using measures that define important quality of life domains (physical health, wellness, finances).
Racial Equity: The way in which society distributes resources to everyone fairly so that people of different races are not treated in an unequal fashion. Structures, systems, policies, and decision-making processes are intentionally designed to promote equal opportunities for everyone.
Reinforcement: A consequence that follows a behavior and increases the likelihood that this response will occur in the future.
Replacement Behavior: A socially-desirable behavior that serves the same function as the challenging behavior identified in the functional behavior assessment. For example, a person might use a picture card to hand to a supervisory indicating a need for a break. Presenting the picture card to the supervisor is a replacement behavior the person can use instead of walking off the work site without telling anyone.
Resistance: People who are asked to change the way they work in order to apply new practices are not always eager to change their everyday routines and patterns. The term resistance refers to situations where someone is not interested in changing their work habits or actively adopting a new set of tools and strategies.
Respondent Learning: Respondent learning occurs when someone begins to learn over time to respond to a signal in the environment. When a stimulus that elicits a response (unconditioned stimulus) is paired with a stimulus that does not usually elicit this type of response, over time and with repeated pairings this neutral stimulus begins to elicit the response, becoming a conditioned stimulus. For example, a child may initially view a cell phone as a neutral stimulus. The child’s parents frequently use their phones for work and are often on these devices. Additionally, the child’s older siblings have phones of their own that they use to play games and watch videos on the internet. The child utilizes the phone to watch videos and play games when they are “waiting” e.g., in a store line, in the car, at a restaurant and, as a result, the child strongly wants access to the phone whenever it is in view. When the child becomes a young adult they get their own phone, they automatically associate using the phone to play games, watch shows, etc. with comfort or relaxation. Over time, the once neutral cell phone becomes an item that can illicit anxiety and anger when access to the phone is not available. Further, it evokes a sense of comfort/relaxation when it is present and available for use.
Response to Intervention or RTI: An educational practice that involves early identification of the academic and social supports needed for all students in school. An increasing continuum of interventions is provided to students needing more educational and behavioral support to ensure academic success. The RTI model has three tiers of academic interventions that increase in intensity across each tier. RTI involves effective instruction for all students and universal screening in general education classrooms. Students struggling with academic goals are provided with interventions based on what they need to improve learning outcomes. Student progress is monitored on an ongoing basis with each child receiving the needed intensity and duration of instruction based on the data that are being collected to monitor and improve progress.
Re-Traumatizing: Involves reliving emotional reactions that were experienced during a traumatic event when facing a similar experience. Training in trauma-informed support encourages people to become more aware of how our words and actions can re-traumatize someone.
Scatter Plot: An example of a tool used in Functional Behavioral Assessment or FBA to record observations about when challenging behaviors are more or less likely to occur.
Self-Regulation: The ability to understand and manage one’s own behavior as well as reactions to events in one’s life. Self-regulation can be used to cope with strong emotions like frustration, fear, anger, anxiety, and sadness. Examples of strategies that help people self-regulate include minduflness, dialectical behavior therapy, and cognitive behavior therapy.
Setting Events: Physiological, social or environmental conditions, past or present, that can influence the likelihood of challenging behavior. Setting events temporarily change the power and intensity of reinforcers in a person’s environment.
SMART GOAL: This acronym is used to help teams remember the key elements that are included when writing a goal. Traditional SMART goals include being Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time- bound. Some groups have recently added Inclusive and Equitable. turning SMART goal into a SMARTIE goal.
Staff Retention and Attrition: Retention rate of staff refers to the percentage of employees that choose to remain working in an organization over a defined period of time while attrition is the percentage of staff that leave the organization and may not have been replaced yet.
Strategic Planning: An improvement process used to set priorities, allocate resources, and improve the way an organization manages work involved in HCBS. A strategic planning process brings employees and other stakeholders together to create a common vision and goals for improving outcomes for people.
Subscales (for Fidelity of Implementation Graphs): When scores on a tool are organized into summaries within an overall score that represent areas within the scoring system of the tool. A subscale score on the Minnesota Team Checklist can show how well the team is addressing different elements of fidelity.
Sustainability: Sustainability refers to the durability and consistent implementation of a plan over time. The efforts taken to keep doing what works in order to obtain the positive outcomes of an effective intervention or entire positive behavior support plan.
Systems of Care: A system of care is a coordinated network of community-based services and supports designed to meet the challenges of children and youth with serious mental health needs and their families. These partnerships of families, youth, public organizations and private service providers address challenging behavior by addressing the mental health services and support needs and building on the strengths of a child, young person, or adult. These systems are also developed around the principles of being child-centered, family-driven, strength-based, and culturally competent.
Systemic Racism: Policies, procedures, structures, and systems that disadvantages marginalized groups. Systemic racism is pervasive and embedded within the core of all major federal, state, and local organizations and institutions in the US.
Task Analysis: The act of breaking down a complicated skill into a series of smaller steps in order to make the skill easier to learn.
The Joint Commission: An organization that provides accreditation to healthcare settings. Accreditation is a voluntary process that involves peer reviewers evaluating the healthcare organization’s compliance with regulatory standards and compares it with performance standards.
Theory: A theory is an idea created through the scientific method to helps explain the world. All theories are incomplete. Relying on only one method to understand challenging behavior is more likely to fail.
Tier 1 Evaluation: Effort, fidelity of implementation, and outcome data that are collected to assess how well a team is using person-centered practices that focus on improving quality of life and social and emotional skills of all people in a setting. Tier 1 refers to a framework for increasing the intensity of efforts with Tier 2 representing a little higher level of support for people for some people and Tier 3 indicating a very high level of support needed for a few people.
Three Tiered Model of Positive Behavior Support: A framework for implementing universal strategies for all people in a home, work, or other setting and by providing a continuum of interventions that increase in intensity based on the unique needs of each person. This framework is applied to positive behavior support and other practices that improve quality of life.
Tier 1 Universal: Strategies for practicing and learning social and emotional skills that everyone can benefit from learning including people receiving support, staff, supervisors, human resource professionals, leaders, family and community members. Tier 1 also includes recognizing and celebrating positive social interactions, responding in a consistent manner to challenges, and using data to assess progress over time.
Tier 2: Monitoring for changes in quality of life or challenges that might be occurring in social interactions and intervening as early as possible to prevent an escalation of interfering behavior. Examples of Tier 2 includes simple function-based strategies and group interventions that provide more opportunities to practice skills and receive positive feedback.
Tier 3: A smaller number of people benefit from structured, individualized, and intensive interventions. When a Tier 3 plan is needed, a team of people form around someone to support this child or adult who is seeking support. A person-centered plan helps create a vision for what the child or adults ideal life and dreams are and an action plan is created with steps for improving quality of life. Practices that will help improve quality of life and other outcomes are identified including examples such as positive behavior support, cognitive behavior therapy, trauma informed care, and motivational interviewing.
Tools of Choice: A universal social skills training to teach staff and family members key strategies for building positive reinforcing interactions. This training was initially developed to support families providing foster care and has been used in other settings including supporting people with Intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Trauma-Focused Care Philosophy: Traumatic life experiences such as child or domestic abuse, natural disasters, or other negative life events can have a lasting impact on a person’s health and emotional wellbeing. Trauma-Informed Cognitive Behavior Therapy is an evidence-based practice that addresses this issue. Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a positive support that teaches children and adults skills to recognize negative or unhealthy thoughts associated with past experiences and to engage in stress management and coping strategies when these thoughts occur. This approach can also include teaching new skills for parents and caregivers of children involved in therapy. A family therapy approach is used to help recognize family dynamics, teach new parenting skills, support stress management for both child and family members, and work on improving communication skills. Trauma-Focused Care Philosophy refers to the core values and messages that describe why it is important for organizations to be sensitive to the past trauma most people have in their lives.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Traumatic life experiences such as child or domestic abuse, natural disasters, or other negative life events can have a lasting impact on a person’s health and emotional wellbeing. Trauma-Informed Cognitive Behavior Therapy is an evidence-based practice that addresses this issue. Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a positive support that teaches children and adults skills to recognize negative or unhealthy thoughts associated with past experiences and to engage in stress management and coping strategies when these thoughts occur. This approach can also include teaching new skills for parents and caregivers of children involved in therapy. A family therapy approach is used to help recognize family dynamics, teach new parenting skills, support stress management for both child and family members, and work on improving communication skills.
Trauma-Informed Practices: Refers to evidence-based practices that assume that children and adults have a history of trauma and that this trauma may have an impact on their behavior and quality of life. Understanding the impact of trauma and creating strategies for supporting people responding to memories of past trauma in their lives can be achieved in different ways. Examples include different types of trauma-informed practices include trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy, cognitive restructuring, and cognitive processing therapy.
Trauma-Informed Support: Systems, training, and tools embedded in organizations to shift the viewpoint towards an understanding that trauma is a widespread issue and that it is important to recognized signs and symptoms of trauma in people receiving services. This information is integrated into policies, procedures, trainings, and practices in order to avoid re-traumatization.
Universal Design: A process used when making changes in an environment used to ensure the products and settings targeted for change are accessible to a wide range of people with different abilities and characteristics (size, mobility, ages, etc.).
Vision Boards: Vision Boards in person-centered practices are used to help a group of people talk about what HCBS services look like now and their vision for the future after implementing person-centered action practices. A facilitator draws pictures and writes simple words and messages on a large sheet of paper that is taped to the wall. Markers, pastel crayons, and other art supplies are used to make these posters colorful and interesting.
Workers Compensation: A type of business insurance that provides benefits to employees who have had work-related injuries or illness caused by working in their jobs. This type of insurance helps pay for medical costs, and lost wages.
Wraparound Planning: Parents of children and adults with mental health needs and challenging behavior are often expected to communicate with a number of different service systems. Each of these services require parents to complete forms, attend meetings, and respond to requests related to services. Juvenile justice, children and family services, special education, mental health, and developmental disabilities are all examples of these different services. The wraparound plan is mean to help youth and their parents by improving service coordination. Wraparound planning is a team-based approach that is child-and family-driven. Team members include natural supports (friends, family members, and people who know the child or young person well). Individuals from formal supports might include a parole officer, counselor, psychiatrist, or special education teacher. The goal of wraparound is to assess the child and family strengths in order to build a plan of support that will improve quality of life.