What you need to know

• In Victoria, Authorised Program Officers play a critical role in safeguarding people who have restrictive practices in their behaviour support plan.
• A new video series from the Victorian Senior Practitioner gives clear advice on restrictive practices for Authorised Program Officers.
• A restrictive practice should only be used as a last resort when all other strategies have been tried.
• The use of restrictive practice must be authorised, can only be used to prevent harm to the person or others, and must be the least restrictive option.

The Victorian Senior Practitioner has released a series of e-learning modules on restrictive practices to increase knowledge in the disability sector. The resources, created for Authorised Program Officers (APO), aim to reduce and eliminate the use of restrictive practices.

Originally presented as webinars as part of the Victorian Senior Practitioners’ Strengthening the APO Role project, the videos give you the basics on the authorisation of restrictive practices in Victoria. The videos also use practical examples to describe processes in practice.

The eLearning modules are:

• What are restrictive practices?
  This module will equip staff working with people with a disability to recognise restrictive practices.
• Authorisation process and key roles
  This module gives an overview of the authorisation process for the use restrictive practices in Victoria and the key roles in the process.
• Legislative requirements for authorisation of restrictive practices
  This module gives an overview of the authorisation requirements for the use of restrictive practices in Victoria under the Disability Act 2006. It shows how behaviour support plans can satisfy the authorisation requirements.
• Restrictive Intervention Data System (RIDS) Training
  This module shows how to complete a Behaviour Support Plan (BSP) for authorisation in the Restrictive Intervention Data System (RIDS).

The videos can be viewed on the Victorian Senior Practitioner’s e-learning modules page.