What is a Behavioural Support Officer?

A day in the life of a Behavioural Support Worker

Are you interested in helping people with disabilities to improve their quality of life by creating individualised strategies that are designed to reduce destructive behaviours, such as self-harm, aggression or property destruction? With Australia’s ageing population, it’s likely that we will see more of these age related behaviours and if you have the personality that flourishes when they help others, you will always have a very secure form of employment.

You will work with a diverse range of patients, who usually suffer from cognitive disabilities, resulting in behaviours that are of concern to both carers and the patient’s family. You will focus on reducing both the impact and occurrence of a range of complex behaviours, addressing the underlying causes of these challenging behaviours, while providing a positive and supportive environment that safeguards the patent’s dignity and quality of life.

At NCA, we offer a Certificate IV in Disability - CHC4315, providing you with the skills and resources you will need to excel in such a challenging role.

A behavioural support officer works with elderly patients who display destructive behaviours, either to themselves or others, usually the result of cognitive impairments. Using evidence-based practices, you will work under the direction of a senior practitioner to identify unmet behaviour support needs for individual patients and create a framework that addresses how these needs can be met safely and with dignity. You will also liaise with other allied health workers and health professionals to ensure that best practices are being met and provide updates on a patient’s progress.

Knowing when and where these challenging and complex behaviours are most likely to occur can help you to reduce their frequency and impact, and bring more stability to a patient’s day. Your goals will be to keep the individual safe and improve their quality of life, whilst at the same time minimising any challenging behaviours.

​You may work in both private and public facilities, day respite centres, residential care facilities, nursing homes or even in patient’s homes, and your skills will be needed all across Australia, from cities to small towns and remote locations. As a member of an established allied health team, you will have lots of support to further grow your skills, experience and knowledge and have fun doing it!

So if you want a challenging and very rewarding career in aged or disability care, a role as a behavioural support officer may prove to be worthwhile and satisfying!

You may start your day discussing the care of patients in a day respite centre with the senior support officer and then move on to spending one-on-one time with individual patients. You may need to spend some time assisting a patient who appears quite agitated to become calmer and more settled in themselves, another who is too distracted to eat their meal because they don’t like being in a group setting, and yet another who has difficulty expressing themselves and tend not to communicate well with others.

​The benefits of working with elderly people who struggle to maintain a reasonable quality of life, due to complex behavioural challenges, is one of the most rewarding careers. If you love helping others and want to focus your innate skills on helping our elderly to live the best life possible, given their disabilities, then a behavioural support officer maybe the right career for you!

Other related Courses you may be interested in:

• Certificate III in Individual Support – CHC33015
• Certificate III in Individual Support – (Ageing and Home and Community) Double Specialisation – CHC33015
• Certificate IV in Ageing Support – CHC43015