Module 7 Ethics Hidden Gem: 150 words

You are working in a home setting with Shawn.  Shawn’s mom tells you before the session that she is putting Shawn on a new diet and starting to put essential oils on his pillow at night to help with his behavior.  She said she read about the diet and essential oils on a social media post in a mom group she is in on Facebook.How would you respond?

1. 450 WORDS

Review scenarios, pick one and complete the attached.

Here are the scenarios for Module 7:

1

When you are covering for another BCBA’s case, you notice that the client and technician spend a lot of time engaged in leisure activities, such as arts and crafts. You do not observe regular data collection, and when you ask the technician what they’re working on, they say that the target is reducing SIB. You review the past data and see that no SIB has been observed in months. When you discuss with the other BCBA, they explain that the client engages in free choice in every session, and they only do what the client wants.

2

You are working with a family that includes an adult with autism. They are interested in learning how to drive, and you have assessed some of the essential skills required for driving and believe that the requisite skills are there. The caregivers, however, are entirely opposed to the idea, and would like you to convince the adult with autism that it is not in their best interest to obtain their driver’s license.

3

Observing a BCaBA working with a non-vocal client during lunch time, you notice that the BCaBA keeps selecting each lunch item to eat for the client, even though the client keeps reaching for the carrot sticks from their lunch bag. You decide to talk to the BCaBA and ask why the client isn’t able to have the carrot sticks before other lunch items. They reply that they would personally prefer the client eat bigger items, like the sandwich, before the side items, and that, “the client doesn’t really care that much anyway, they always reach for whatever they can’t have.”

4

You are on a new team with a very young child with ASD and several other diagnoses. When meeting with the team, it was determined that PECS would be a great starting point for the child for functional communication. The speech therapist stated that she will just recommend a communication device because she hates doing PECS, implementing it and keeping up on the pictures. The family expressed concern about the child using a device as he doesn’t point and will just slap or pat on electronic devices. Upon further discussion, the speech therapist said if you do PECS then she will not participate or work on it with him and would prefer to be taken off the team.

5

An occupational therapist that you are working with makes a suggestion to implement an intervention that you aren’t familiar with. The family agrees that what the OT is suggesting fits in well with their goals and lifestyle, but you recall vaguely that someone in the ABA community had mentioned the therapy and called it “pseudoscience”.

6

You have been working with a child that is diagnosed with ASD. She engages in severe self-injurious behavior (head banging). She has been hospitalized 2 times for cuts to her forehead and concussions. Behaviors have decreased at school after staff training from our team but stay consistent in the home. The family is struggling with staying in close proximity to her, being proactive and implementing strategies when staff is not around. Their insurance company is suggesting a helmet to keep her safe, but the parents don’t want their child to walk around with a helmet on all the time.

7

You are a new BCBA to an established case and go to meet your client and his family for the first time.  The client is a 12-year-old male evaluated using the VB-MAPP and has been a client of the company for 5 years.  You see the client run in and out of the meeting wearing only his underwear and holding up an iPad to his ear.   While meeting with the family, you learn that the previous BCBA has only been out to observe the client 1 time per quarter since starting and none of the programs have hit mastery.  The family is very happy with progress and hope that they can work on building a conversation with the client by the end of the year.  After the meeting, you look at the data with the current technicians and they say they have been working on tacting for 6 months and want him to tact 50 items before moving on to manding.  Other goals the technicians are working on are cutting, coloring and sorting shapes.

Part I  1pg

please review these notes and answer the following check-in questions

Check in question 1: 

How do we ensure the environments we (and our colleagues) operate within are set up to support ethical behavior?

Check in question 2: 

Can behavior analysts provide non-behavioral services? Under what conditions?

Check in question 3:

When a BCBA leaves an organization, which party is responsible for maintaining the client records?

Check in question 4:

Are clinicians allowed to waive insurance co-payments for clients with financial difficulties?

 

Part II 2pgs

Next, review the following scenarios. You will pick one scenario and fill out the Ethical Discussion Guide for the week.

 

1

Shortly after you took on your new role as a BCaBA, you met with the BCBA who is supervising you to discuss expectations regarding your new position. During the meeting, your supervisor said that the company manager has a requirement that you request 10-hours per week of one-on-one therapy for each new client the company serves when submitting your requests for hours to your clients’ insurance providers.

2

A caregiver that is working with one of your BCBA colleagues states the following to you: “I just feel like the parent training is rigid and very much in a silo. I feel like it’s almost robotic at times and we don’t get to discuss the tougher things that surface. I don’t know if we are moving in the right direction based upon our family’s needs.”

3

Two weeks ago, you saw one of your previous adult clients working at a neighborhood grocery store. You haven’t worked with this person for seven years and have only been working with early intervention clients since fading off their case. You would like to say hello.

4

When casually chatting in a colleague’s office, you observe them inputting pencil-paper data into excel, and then watch them shred the data sheet immediately. It was your understanding that the funder requires all documentation to be kept for seven years after the service date; however, your colleague says this is a recommendation and that it is safer to shred the data immediately for confidentiality purposes.

5

An organization that you are working with is interested in sending out a holiday video featuring the clients and caregivers sharing their accomplishments for the past year. The video will be uploaded to Youtube, but will only be emailed internally for staff and families.

6

You are a technician providing services within a school setting. The behavior team does not have access to their own office spaces at the school, but the school allows you to sit and work in an area with the teacher’s aids. They also empty out a drawer of the filing cabinet so that you can store client files as needed, and are happy to lock the door to the office after hours to protect the client documentation.

7

When you arrive to your session, the caregiver meets you at the door and lets you know that the client is sick. They say, “go ahead and clock in for your session, though – I want to make sure you don’t get penalized for this cancellation.”

pick one scenario to fill out the Ethical Decision Discussion Guide here attached.

 

1

You keep in touch with a good friend from High School and you know that their young child is showing signs and symptoms of Autism. They end up getting a diagnosis and reach out to you asking for some tips. You give them some tips on increasing communication, following through with demands, and capturing motivation. The information is well received, but they’re now asking you more questions, about behaviors, and school support, and whether you think their child will ever be able to have a conversation with them. You want to help, but also know they need more intensive support and are starting to feel uncomfortable.

2

You live in an area in which there are few ABA providers. A parent contacts you, desperate for services for their child, who has been diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). You have never worked with someone with PDD, but have extensive experience with the autistic population.

3

Your friend, an older BCBA, describes how they do not like ongoing learning. For their certification, they play webinars in the background while they work, occasionally responding to questions (guessing until they get the correct answer) in order to get credit for the CEUs. They think you are silly for joining your local ABA community and spending money to attend conferences. “I learned everything I needed to know in my degree program.”

4

During your BACB® exam, you begin to feel as though you have seen some of the questions before. You think it may have been through an app you had downloaded to study, but you aren’t sure and have lost access to the app. As to not invalidate your exam, you don’t mention anything to anyone.

5

A company owning several residential facilities is getting ready to undergo a federal review. You are a BCBA working at their facilities. In preparation for the review, you have been instructed by the administrators to “… go over there to those houses, get some assessments written up, write some behavior programs, and make sure there is some data. You may have to backdate if necessary.”

6

You have been given a client who is experiencing food selectivity issues. You recognize some potential contributors to their resistance to certain food items, so you pick out a few articles that describe procedures that have worked for other clients. After reading these articles, you draft up a procedure to help reinforce expanding food selection behaviors.

7

Another behavior analyst you are working with has just taken on a new case. They discuss assigning the case to a specific technician, but you’ve heard and seen signs that the technician that has been selected is experiencing extreme burnout – to the point where clients may not continue to receive the best services. However, the BCBA mentions that the technician has requested additional hours due to a recent home purchase.