In the fall of 2005, 9-Polk County, Iowa, agencies joined together in a multi-year initiative-the Polk County Positive Behavior Support Network (PCPBSN). It was sponsored by Polk County Health Services, and guided by the Iowa Behavioral Alliance, which is no longer in existence.
The Network was conceived, and continues to be driven by the need to increase the capacity of our disability services to effectively serve individuals with interfering behaviors. Over the years, services to people with disabilities have identified the individual as the target of intervention strategies and all too frequently resorted to punishment type strategies in trying to manage behavior.
Positive Behavior Support is a values based approach that is designed to prevent interfering behavior rather than correcting/punishing the individual. It is the marriage of teaching, and prevention by arranging the environment in such a way that interfering behavior becomes irrelevant, inefficient, and ineffective. It is empirically based to facilitate the evaluation of change efforts. The goal is to invest in the capacity of the person, not focus on the correction of the person’s interfering behavior.
The goal of the PBS Initiative was, and continues to be, bringing together service providers who are committed to developing Positive Behavior Supports within their own agencies and within the Polk County service system as a whole. The Polk County Positive Behavior Support Network (PCPBSN) is currently comprised of 15 member-agencies.