Integrating the Constructional Approach with Staff and Organisations to Address Restrictive Practices
24/7/2026
PDU/CE: 3
12:30-3:30pm
Level: Intermediate
About this Workshop
Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) in Australian disability services is increasingly shaped by restrictive practice regulation. While intended to safeguard rights, compliance pressures can unintentionally narrow behaviour support toward incident prevention, problem reduction, and staff “control” strategies—rather than constructing meaningful, participant-defined lifestyle outcomes. This half-day, intermediate workshop shows how to re-balance PBS by treating restrictive practices as staff and organisational behaviour selected by service contingencies.
Drawing on Goldiamond’s (1974/2002) Constructional Approach and Gilbert’s Human Performance Technology, the workshop targets the implementing provider as an explicit recipient of behaviour change support. Participants will learn to build a provider-facing constructional behaviour support plan that: (a) specifies valued, observable provider outcomes (e.g., safety with rapport preserved and duty of care met), (b) identifies current staff entry repertoires and the organisational contingencies that make restrictive responses “work” (time pressure, peer modelling, perceived risk, managerial reinforcement), (c) constructs practical, less- or non-coercive alternative repertoires that produce the same critical outcomes at lower cost to staff and participants, and (d) designs maintenance systems (leadership modelling, coaching, feedback, reinforcement, environmental supports, routines and staffing arrangements) that make rights-affirming practice easier to sustain than restriction.
The workshop is highly relevant to behaviour analysis because it applies core behavioural technologies—functional assessment, contingency analysis, skill construction, and maintenance programming—at the staff and systems level. By extending the therapeutic contract beyond the participant to the service context, attendees will strengthen their capacity to reduce restraint through constructional, ethically grounded practice that aligns behavioural principles with contemporary rights-based expectations in Australian service settings.
Audience: Behaviour Support Practitioners, Behaviour Analysts, Clinical Leads, Practice Leaders, Service Managers
At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
Explain why restrictive practices should be analysed as staff and organisational behaviour shaped by systemic contingencies, and the implications for restraint reduction.
Use Goldiamond’s four guiding questions to develop a constructional plan for an implementing provider (staff and service level).
Identify provider “entry repertoires” and organisational contingencies (including workplace cultures and ‘hidden curriculum’ effects) that sustain restrictive responses.
Presenters
John Wooderson, PhD, BCBA-D, is a Behaviour Analyst with over three decades of experience across disability services, supported accommodation, education, and aged care. He began his career as a classroom teacher before transitioning to the Department of Communities (Disability Services). In 2009, John joined the Queensland Centre of Excellence for Behaviour Support as Principal Research Officer and later became Director of Learning and Development, leading training initiatives across Queensland.
Since 2017, John has worked as a Behaviour Specialist across Supported Independent Living, Respite, Out-of-Home Care, Education, and Aged Care. His leadership roles reflect a sustained focus on developing practical service capability and reducing reliance on restrictive practices through implementable systems.
John’s professional and research interests include constructional approaches to behaviour support, staff and service-level change, and the design of conditions that make non-coercive practice more workable than restrictive responding. He has contributed to applied work focused on improving staff performance and service quality using behaviour analytic methods.
Oliver Roschke, BCBA, is an experienced Behaviour Support Practitioner, clinical supervisor, and aspiring organisational leader with over two decades of experience across special education and disability sectors in Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia. His interests include constructional approaches to behaviour support, human rights and restraint reduction, organisational behaviour management, and human performance technology. Oliver is currently a Director at Constructional Solutions and serves as an Independent Specialist for DCJ NSW, providing expert advice and evaluation of regulated restrictive practices.