Assessing the problem

Abstract

When a person has been identified as needing help in overcoming a behavioural difficulty, the situation has often been present for some considerable time but a sudden escalation in its frequency or a dramatic increase in its severity means that the situation is now perceived as a crisis. Such a sense of crisis and urgency may encourage those working with the individual concerned to adopt measures which are not necessarily in the individual’s best interests. For example, they may adopt punitive measures in order to discourage the behaviour or look to control it through the use of medication. Such measures, even if effective in containing the immediate problem, may be ethically and socially inappropriate and, in any case, are unlikely to be helpful in the longer term.