Association for Behavior Analysis International



46th Annual Convention; Washington DC; 2020

Workshop Details

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Workshop #W83
CE Offered: BACB — 
Treating Compassionately With Sound Clinical Judgement
Friday, May 22, 2020
4:00 PM–7:00 PM
To Be Determined
Area: DDA/AUT; Domain: Service Delivery
CE Instructor: Jill E. McGrale Maher, M.A.
JILL E. MCGRALE MAHER (Massachusetts Preparatory Academy for Children), IAN MELTON (Endicott College, Journeys Behavior Learning Center), BRITANY MELTON (Endicott College, Logan Center), COURTNEY MAHER (Michigan State University )
Description: Over the past several years, many Behavior Analysts have acquired reputations of being uncaring and cold in their approach to care, interventions, and in interactions with stakeholders. Fortunately, many leaders in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis have recently begun to emphasize the importance of the inclusion of compassion and empathy in our work and its importance in improving clinical outcomes (Taylor, LeBlanc & Nosik 2018; ). Several companies are beginning to include positive interactions, empathy, compassion, cultural competence and collaboration skills in staff training programs. Additionally, companies are starting to measure how improving relationships with caregivers, parent’s perception of compassionate care, how compassionate care of our clients and ourselves can enhance our work as behavior analysts, and potentially improve clinical outcomes. What has not been formally discussed on a wide-spread basis are implementation strategies for this concept while using sound clinical judgement. In other words, when and how to “draw the line” and assert oneself as the expert. This workshop will discuss and provide participants with strategies to master compassionate care while ensuring high quality, clinically sound programming. Participants will discuss and practice guidelines and strategies to ensure timely decision making to guarantee state-of-the art and best quality programming.
Learning Objectives: Participants will: 1. Identify and practice essential communication skills 2. Identify and practice essential listening skills 3. Identify and practice essential active listening skills 4. Identify and practice essential communication skills 5. Identify and practice how to identify stakeholder’s goals and how to incorporate them into treatment plans 6. Identify and practice how to identify and honor diverse cultural practices into treatment plans 7. Identify and practice assessing situations and relationships 8. Identify and practice repairing damaged conversations and relationships 9. Discuss guidelines for ensure utilization of evidence-based interventions and procedures while being empathic to all situations 10. Discuss how the BACB Ethical Code applies to the current topic 11. Role-play situations utilizing skills in objectives 1-10
Activities: Instructional strategies include: Lecture, small group activities, role-play, video observation, small and large group discussions Workshop Objectives wil be met through: small group activities, role-play, video observation, small and large group discussions
Audience: Target audience is intermediate-advanced and will be best suited for staff working directly with staff, families, and clients with ASD or DDA. Professionals responsible for designing staff training programs will benefit.
Content Area: Practice
Instruction Level: Intermediate



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