Ethical Considerations for Interdisciplinary Collaboration with Prescribing Professionals
Keep the four-step card handy and use it the moment meds change to protect your client and your license.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors built a four-step checklist for BCBAs who work with doctors who prescribe meds.
They used one real case to show how the checklist works. The paper is a how-to, not an experiment.
What they found
The checklist keeps the client safe and keeps the BCBA on solid ethical ground.
Each step has a yes-or-no question so you know when to act.
How this fits with other research
Li et al. (2018) asked 400 BCBAs and found most serve kids on meds but feel clueless. The 2017 checklist gives those same BCBAs something concrete to do.
Patton et al. (2020) showed adults with IDD often get heavy drug loads that mimic behavior crises. The checklist’s first step—record baseline data—helps you spot when a new med, not the client, is the problem.
Colombo et al. (2020) built a crisis triage model for BCBAs. Both papers hand you a fast decision tree; one is for pandemics, the other for pill changes.
Why it matters
You can tape the four-step card inside your binder today. When the doctor adds Risperdal at lunch, you will already have baseline data, a script to share behavioral risks, and a plan to call a team huddle. That is ethical advocacy in real time.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Behavior analysts often work as part of an interdisciplinary team, and different team members may prescribe different interventions for a single client. One such intervention that is commonly encountered is a change in medication. Changes in medication regimens have the potential to alter behavior in a number of ways. As such, it is important for all team members to be aware of every intervention and to consider how different interventions may interact with each other. These facts make regular and clear communication among team members vital for treatment success. While working as part of an interdisciplinary team, behavior analysts must abide by their ethics code, which sometimes means advocating for their client with the rest of the team. This article will review some possible implications of medicinal interventions, potential ethical issues that can arise, and a case study from the authors’ experience. Finally, the authors propose a decision-making tree that can aid in determining the best course of action when a team member proposes an intervention in addition to, or concurrent with, interventions proposed by the behavior analyst.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2017 · doi:10.1007/s40617-017-0184-x