by Joy Johnson

Created on: July 28, 2009

Caring for family members who are mentally disabled can be a difficult challenge. It can also be a rich blessing as you grow to know and understand the needs of the person for whom you provide care. Understanding how to make it less stressful and more enjoyable is a matter of knowing how to read your loved one to prevent problems before they get out of hand.

Anyone who is responsible for the daily care of a mentally disabled person can attest to the fact that one of the biggest challenges of the task is the behavioral issues that tend to stress the family out and wear down patience fast.

As a Behavior Analyst, I specialize in helping family members understand and address behavioral aspects of everyday life, for people with disabilities. The range of mental disability is broad. Many individuals who are mentally disabled are non-verbal, some are blind, deaf, autistic and developmentally delayed. Many people who are mentally retarded are also diagnosed with mental illness. Chances are the person you care for falls within this broad range of mental disability.

Some people might make the assumption that people with disabilities act out because they are retarded and that is the way retarded people act. They make the same assumption with mentally ill people too and the list goes on and on. Truly, the reason we see increased behaviors among this population of people is because they are communicating with us in the only way the know how. To dismiss their behavior as merely a description or symptom of their disability without understanding the function of the behavior is a thinking error. It will also impact the quality of care and the quality of the relationship that the care taker has with the person with the disability.

Discovering the cause of behavior

So, how do you deal with a loved one who has special challenges, especially with the behavioral aspects that are typically part of every day life? First of all, it is important to realize that all behavior is a form of communication. Most of what we communicate is non-verbal. For people, who have limited verbal abilities or who have mental illness along with developmental delays, you must understand why they are doing a specific behavior before you can address it.

Keep a written record

One easy way family members can learn why their loved one is behaving a certain way is to keep track of what happened before and after the behavior. Most people think they know why a person is acting a certain way just by dealing

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