Treatment of continence in people with learning disabilities: 3

Behaviourism is a model of intervention for people with a learning disability which focuses on observable behaviour and methods of changing it. The behaviourist strategies do not typically place high value on some of the diagnostic labels that have been considered in the first two articles of this series (Vol 5(6): 364-8; Vol 5(8): 492-8). Rather, the behaviourist is concerned with the behaviours a particular individual shows. Behaviour modification is a particular methodology within psychotherapy that has many interpretations, ranging from a rigid orthodoxy through to an eclectic ecumenicism of theoretical models. The third article in this series on the management of continence in people with a learning disability examines the behavioural strategies that have been historically and are currently available to practitioners. The legacy of behaviour modification (1970s style) means that staff do sometimes perceive such strategies as treatment, whereas in fact the treatment is a combination of designing the environment, designing individual programmes and designing specific ways of developing more valuing forms of continence management.