Youth mentoring vs behaviour support: what a young person needs

Getting the wrong service is a common reason a young person plateaus. If the young person needs behaviour support and gets a mentor instead, the behaviour keeps interrupting the skill-building. If they need mentoring and get behaviour support instead, the plan is written but nothing new gets built. Here is the difference and how to tell.

The one-line difference

Youth mentoring builds new skills the young person did not previously have. Positive Behaviour Support changes patterns of behaviour that are getting in the way of daily life. They are complementary, but they are not the same job.

What youth mentoring is for

Youth mentoring is structured, one-to-one skill-building. It works from a framework (a four-stage model) and moves the young person from support-dependent to self-led over time. Common goals include:

• Cooking, cleaning, and household skills
• Managing money and appointments
• Public transport and community access
• Handling hard conversations without walking out
• Building routines and self-management
• Preparing for work, further education, or independent living

Mentoring works when the young person can engage with the mentor and the environment is safe enough for skill-building to happen. If either of those is not true, mentoring alone will not hold.

What Positive Behaviour Support is for

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) is used when a young person has behaviours of concern. Behaviours of concern are any patterns that impact the young person’s ability to participate in daily life, compromise their rights or safety, or put them or others at risk. Common examples include aggression, self-injury, property damage, running, shutdown, refusal, or any pattern that keeps interrupting daily life.

PBS is delivered as a written Behaviour Support Plan that families, schools, and support workers use in daily life. It sets out prevention strategies, new skills the young person will learn to meet the same underlying need, safe response strategies, and plans to reduce any restrictive practices already in place.

The decision tree

Refer for mentoring alone if:

• The young person can engage in a one-to-one session and the environment is safe enough to build in
• The primary need is practical skills that have not been taught yet
• There are no behaviour patterns interrupting daily life to the point that skill-building cannot happen

Refer for behaviour support alone if:

• The young person’s behaviour is the main thing making daily life hard
• An existing plan is not being used or is not working
• Restrictive practices are in place and need to be reduced
• The family, school, or placement team need a plan they can actually work from

Refer for both if:

• The young person has behaviours of concern and needs practical skills built
• Existing supports are around but the young person is plateauing
• The placement is at risk and both the behaviour patterns and the untaught skills are contributing
• The young person is in Out-of-Home Care with dual DCJ and NDIS funding

When in doubt, refer for both.

At Supporting Communities Australia, both services can be delivered by the same team under one referral, so the young person is not passed between providers for the same set of goals. If it turns out one is not needed, we say so honestly.

Common mistakes to avoid

Assuming behaviour support means “managing” the behaviour

Good PBS does not try to control the behaviour. It works out what the behaviour is communicating, meets that need in a safer way, teaches new skills to replace the old pattern, and reduces restrictive practices. If a plan reads like a set of consequences, it is not PBS.

Assuming mentoring will fix a behaviour problem

A mentor is not a behaviour support practitioner. If the young person’s behaviour is repeatedly interrupting sessions, and there is no PBS plan supporting the household, the mentor is being set up to fail. Behaviour support around the mentoring is the difference between the mentoring landing and being the third service that “did not work”.

Sequencing them wrongly

You do not have to do behaviour support first and then start mentoring. In most cases where both are needed, they start at the same time and reinforce each other. The mentoring works on what the young person can do. The plan works on the patterns that get in the way. Together, they close the gap between “the plan says” and “what actually happens on the ground”.

Funding paths

In NDIS plans, youth mentoring is usually funded under Improved Daily Living or Increased Social and Community Participation. Positive Behaviour Support is usually funded from the Behaviour Support budget (called Improved Relationships on older plans). For OOHC referrals, both services can be funded through DCJ packages, PSP funding, or a combination with NDIS where the young person is dual-eligible.