Problem: Ethics Codes
For this problem, you are playing the role of an experienced Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) who has been working in the field for several years. You have worked in various settings including an elementary school, and an in-patient unit for adults. You just started a new job at a small ABA clinic for adolescents diagnosed with autism.
As an experienced BCBA, you are asked to present on supervising others and the core principles from the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts to new employees. This group of employees at the company you are working for includes a mix of RBTs, BCaBAs, and BCBAs. You will be providing them with real-life supervision scenarios that apply to the core principles as well as relevant ethical codes.
Scenario I
When you first started working in the field, you were asked to supervise 20 supervisees at your company. This company was run by a CEO who had never worked in the field of ABA and was concerned about making a profit off of the business. You realized that the number of clients was increasing at a pace that impacted the treatment of clients. The quality of care started to dip, and your clients started engaging in more behaviors due to inconsistent schedules. There were a few recommendations that the CEO made that were questionable. One of the recommendations made was that students conduct supervision and bill insurance to save time and money. These students were in school to become BCBAs but had not yet graduated or completed their supervision hours. You were asked to sign off on these supervision notes so that billing could be approved.
Scenario II
You were working with a 6-year-old client with autism who engages in mild problem behaviors and struggles with activities of daily living. During mealtimes, this client ate with his hands and did not know how to eat with utensils. In the functional life skills assessment, a goal stated, "Client will use utensils to eat with during mealtimes independently." You thought about entering this goal in, as it is typically the next goal you work on based on his skill level and age. Before implementing this life skill goal, you wanted to discuss it with the parents first. The primary RBT on his case said, "He shouldn't be eating with his hands; it is bad manners." You spoke with the parents, and the parents informed you that culturally, they ate all meals with their hands and did not need to worry about him using utensils. You decided to discuss this with your RBT and explain your reasoning. The RBT said, "Well everyone else is eating with utensils; I will just work on this anyways."
Scenario III
After you had a few years of experience, you worked for one year at an in-patient behavioral health center. At this center, you were being trained by a colleague who copy and pasted behavior intervention plans, and changed the names regardless of background information. You noticed that these behavior plans were not client-specific and were the same. These plans also included wording like, "Rush to use physical prompting if needed, and restrain if they act up." You noticed these plans were lacking reinforcement systems or least-to-most prompting. When you were asked to review these plans and edit them, you decided to bring these issues up to your supervisor.