Our Mission and Philosophy

Hayden Consultation Services' mission is to assist those challenged with disabilities improve their quality of life.

The philosophies that provide the foundation for the Positive Behavior Support movement inform the activities of Hayden Consultation Services as it strives to meet its stated mission. Key concepts that are at the heart of the services include:

• An Emphasis on Lifestyle Change - The emphasis is on improving an individual's quality of life, not simply reducing challenging behavior.
• Functional Assessment - Individualized functional assessments help us understand why people behave the way they do and guide the development of supports.
• Multicomponent Interventions - Supports bring together interventions that reduce the frequency of challenging behaviors and encourage learning and using adaptive and fulfilling behaviors.
• Modification of Ecological and Setting Events - Environments and situations are adjusted to better match an individual's skills.
• Emphasis on Antecedent Modifications - Things that trigger challenging behaviors are changed to reduce the behavior's frequency and/or intensity.
• Teaching Adaptive Behavior - Individuals are taught skills that enable them to get what they need in effective and efficient ways.
• Building Environments with Effective Consequences - Consequences are introduced or adjusted to encourage people to learn and use adaptive behaviors and to decrease their use of challenging behaviors.
• Minimizing the Use of Punishers - Punishers are often removed as better teaching occurs.
• Distinguishing Emergency Procedures from Proactive Programming - Emergency, or control procedures are only recommended to gain control of dangerous situations and are not in any way considered a part of a support or "treatment" plan.
• Social Validation and the Role of Dignity in Behavioral Support - Interventions are focused on enhancing the dignity of an individual and are designed to be inclusionary; specifically with the approval of everyone involved, including the individual.