Mandy is currently living in a residential out of home care facility for children and young adults. She is12 years and has been living in residential care for nearly six months. There have been reports that during this time she has, on several occasions, exhibited behaviours of concern, but you have not observed them.

Mandy has low self-esteem, is shy, socially awkward and has taken a while to settle in to her new environment.

At 10:30 am on a Saturday morning tea was served. Mandy helped prepare it and was feeling very proud of herself. Jill, another young resident made what Mandy thought was a derogatory remark about the morning tea and Mandy yelled at her. When Jill refused to respond, Mandy grabbed Jill's morning tea and threw it on the floor. You intervened to calm both girls down, but Mandy continued yelling and threw her chair against a wall. The other young people present made point of ignoring her. She then ran to her room slammed the door shut.

You checked that everyone present was ok then knocked on Mandy's door and told her you were ready to talk to her when she calmed down.

Mandy called you into her room about 10 minutes later to discuss why she acted out as she did. At first she was angry with Jill and said it was all her fault. You allowed Mandy to complain until she calmed down. Without apportioning any blame you worked with her to discuss what had happened and the real cause of the issue. She said she was angry, and that yelling and throwing things made her feel better at the time. She agreed, however, that she felt worse afterwards. She also admitted that she was hurt because she thought she and Jill were becoming friends.

You helped her work through strategies for managing similar situations better next time. She said that next time something like that happened she would try calmly saying how she felt - using words to address her needs - and would let the support workers help her resolve the issue. You discussed methods of achieving positive outcomes.

Mandy came out to the dining area and cleaned up the mess she had made.

Describe the antecedents (triggers) for the behaviours, the needs Mandy was trying to address and the consequences of the behaviour, and explain why it is necessary for Mandy and the support worker to understand these.