Challenging behaviors constitute a real pitfall in supporting people with severe intellectual disabilities. Undermining patients and host institutions as well as psychiatric services, these crisis situations are usually underpinned by many factors including somatic, psychiatric, educational and environmental factors. New models, including the one developed by our team in Lausanne, offer a more specific approach for these complex cases, involving individualized, collaborative and multidisciplinary care to resolve the crisis but also for the overall improvement of the person's life course. This article aims to present the model set up by the Psychiatry Department of the CHUV (UPCHM unit).