Managing challenging behaviours

A challenging behaviour that surfaces in a face-to-face DAFNE course can seem more immediate or real, as you are occupying the same physical space as the person expressing their feelings and acting on them.

To recap, the skills and processes that support the DAFNE philosophy are:

• using participant experience as a starting point in each session
• having a structure to each session that encourages skills development, peer support and learning through experience by practising the skills
• using a guiding style of open questioning (the Socratic questioning technique) to encourage problem solving, challenge barriers and present other treatment options
• encouraging personally relevant goal setting and action planning to enable participants to move towards their goals.

The skills and processes outlined in the DAFNE philosophy focus on those required to facilitate learning. These skills can also help you to manage group behaviours.

Often educators are able to reduce challenging behaviours or eliminate them from their sessions through facilitation and session planning.

To help you to consider how managing a challenging behaviour in a face-to-face DAFNE course may be different to managing a similar behaviour in a Remote DAFNE course, we have prepared three short videos for you to watch and review. In the videos all group members are attending a DAFNE course (5 days in one week) and using blood glucose checking rather than continuous glucose monitoring (CGM).