| How does this behavior relate to client safety? | What might be an effective approach to intervention? | What might be an effective approach to intervention? |
|---|---|---|
Mismanagement of blood sugar levels could literally be deadly. | Have John check his blood sugar for a period of time, with an instructor to ensure he does so correctly, and on the proper schedule. Then fade the support over time. This could be over several days or several months. Given the importance of correct management. | Maybe pricking his fingers, or connecting a phone to a bluetooth reader that is attached to his body. Possibly maintaining a proper diet, eating or avoiding specific foods. |
It allows him to independently track and likely report any concerns regarding his health. | Forward chain | Ensuring John understands what the numbers mean and the ranges. |
Being able to manage his own health | Making taking care of health a priority | |
Client has diabetes - it is important that he manages his sugar levels if he wants to sustain a healthy lifestyle | Task analysis, knowing the times or cues as to when to take blood sugar levels, being able to identify what the results mean e.g., high reading vs a "normal" reading. | If there is a high reading - the person may need to seek help. Does the person know who to contact and how to do this? Visuals could be in place for this - e.g., a flow chart |
He’ll be able to handle self help needs without someone’s help. | Video model, task analysis. | Ensuring they know how to get ahold of their doctor. |
Knowing his blood sugar can lead to better choices for food, leading to greater client autonomy | Probe to see what steps in testing blood sugar John can do. Provide video models of someone taking their own blood sugar and have John imitate the steps. | Teaching what the blood sugar readings mean, how to interpret them, and how to adjust food choices based on the reading. |
This can be a critical life safety skill to ensure he eats the proper foods and/or gives himself the proper medications | Ability to read numbers (off the screen) and do math (can John recognize low/appropriate/high blood sugar levels and do the calculations if required to administer insulin) and/or how to read a glucose monitor, ability to stick himself with a needle/device independently (this may include giving insulin if necessary), properly managing the disposal of sharps/strips | Identifying appropriate food choices, what to do/who to contact if blood sugar levels are not at appropriate levels. |
Increased awareness of own medical condition to best know when something feels wrong. If he can self-administer, he will not be prone to staff error. | Create a TA, assess the steps, then do a total task chain if possible, forward if needed. The TA will have sections each with its own steps. So it is likely that there will be several things going on - teaching a few different behavior chains that will be learned at different rates. | All steps of self managing meds - alarms, pill holders, using medication bottles if relevant, other education regarding monitoring symptoms, etc. |
He can alert someone more quickly or take steps to correct it before it becomes an emergency. | Set an alarm for him to check his blood sugar throughout the day | Eating sugar or injecting insulin, whichever is needed. |
being Diabetic there are multiple check ins health wise daily that would need to be taught to be successful for independence | using timers and teaching the steps as a task analysis | video models; watching and following along to a video of himself or others completing the steps |
he won't have to depend on others to check his health | developing a task analysis and using forward chaining to teach the necessary steps to become independent | Prioritize independence |
Consider how skill acquisition changes risk to the individual. | Individualized teaching techniques | Prioritize autonomy and privacy. |
Safety skills would need to be taught as an indicator of appropriate A1C levels within the client, this qualifies as a safety skill practice. | A task analysis and a BST model with close supervision and eventual fading with checks and medical community intervention to increase independence and self management. | Nutrition and cooking classes would be a wonderful addition to help John manage diabetes. |
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socially significant for them to be more independent in their medical care | a TA | what to do when blood sugar is high/low , who to alert |
John can manage his levels more safely without relying on a staff or family member to be present. | Forward chaining | Checklists and reinforcement for monitoring and tracking diet and exercise as related to diabetes. |
John can manage his own health and learn to independently look at his levels. | task analysis | managing first aid |
Directly relates to medical wellbeing | alerts, self-monitoring | Accuracy in administration |
increases independence with health care | forward chaining | administering insulin |
Checking his blood independently | Modeling | Does he know when he needs to check his blood, does he know how to tell |
it is a preventative health and safety measure | video modeling | healthy diet examples and non examples |
it can be harmful | prompting | fct |
It's important to John's health and safety that he understands how to check his blood sugar. If he is able to become more involved in this part of his diabetes management it is possible he will gain a better overall understanding of how to manage his diabetes. | I would develop a task analysis of the steps involved in checking his own blood sugar. I would then conduct an assessment to determine which steps John knows and doesn't know how to do. I would then determine what type of chaining might be effective based on the assessment. I might consider using video modeling as a tool to teach as it would relatively easy to make the videos and John could be involved in the videos himself, making it as realistic as possible. I would consider whether any steps need additional practice outside of chaining trials as well. | It might be helpful to include some sort of recording of the blood sugar readings as this is commonly done with clients with diabetes. I might also consider looking at whether John is able to identify the physical indicators of high and low blood sugar - maybe first with another person/character but for sure with himself. I would also consider teaching John to then connect what next steps need to be taken if he has low or high blood sugar. |
monitoring their own health, preventing injury by being able to respond to self need | ta | pre assessment of skills |
Checking blood sugar regularly is directly related to John’s health and safety. If blood sugar levels are too high or too low, John could experience serious medical problems. Learning to monitor his blood sugar helps reduce health risks and allows early response to unsafe levels. | An effective approach would be skill building with gradual independence. The behavior analyst could: | Additional safety-related targets might include: |
| How does this behavior relate to client safety? | What might be an effective approach to intervention? | What might be an effective approach to intervention? |
