Ethics hotlines serve as a barometer for the health of a profession, revealing the real-world challenges that practitioners face in their daily work. The ABA Ethics Hotline, established to help Board Certified Behavior Analysts understand and apply the ethics code established by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, has over six years accumulated a rich dataset of questions that collectively paint a portrait of a profession navigating rapid growth, commercial pressures, and evolving practice contexts.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Florida Association of Behavior Analysis
Take This Course →Including ethics, supervision, and topics like this one. New live CEU every Wednesday.
Join Free →The ABA Ethics Hotline was initially established to help BCBAs understand the ethics code established by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. In the six years that the Hotline has been in place a great deal has happened in our profession that is reflected in the types of questions that are coming in daily to the Hotline. In this presentation I will describe several categories of questions including problems encountered by BCBAs working in school districts and in-home with caregivers. In addition, I will discuss problems regarding supervision of RBTs and trainees, as well as insurance and billing concerns. As a bonus I will describe how private-equity-owned companies are the source of an additional set of systems-level ethics challenges for BCBAs and what can be done to thwart them.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | Ethics |
| COA | 1 | — |
| FL MH/PSY | 1 | — |
Dr. Bailey received his BS and MS from Arizona State University where he worked with Jack Michael and Lee Meyerson, and his PhD, from the University of Kansas in 1970, with Mont Wolf as his mentor; he is a newly retired Professor Emeritus of Psychology from Florida State University where he was on the graduate faculty for 38 years and produced a record 63 PhDs. He was on the faculty of the FSU Panama City for nearly 25 years and created their ABA Master’s Program which has been ranked #1 in the world by the BACB three times in the last 10 years; approximately 350 students have graduated from the program. He is a BCBA-D, a Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis: International, and the American Psychological Association. Jon received the Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis Award from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis, the Division 25 Fred S. Keller Behavioral Education Award and the University of Kansas Applied Behavioral Science Distinguished Alumni Award as well as the prestigious Nathan H. Azrin Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Behavior Analysis from the American Psychological Association. In 2017, he received the Murray Sidman Award for Enduring Contributions to Behavior Analysis from the Berkshire Association for Behavior Analysis and Therapy. He is credited with founding the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis which now has nearly 2,000 members and Behavior Management Consultants, a thriving consulting company, both in 1980. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed research articles, is past Chief Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and is the co-author of 16 books including Ethics for Behavior Analysts, Research Methods in Applied Behavior Analysis, How to Think Like a… Behavior Analyst and 25 Essential Skills for Professional Behavior Analysts. His latest endeavor is the creation of the popular ABAEthicsHotline.com which receives hundreds of ethics questions per month from consumers and behavior analysts all over the world.
Side-by-side comparison with a clinical decision framework
Research-backed educational guide for behavior analysts
Research-backed answers to common clinical questions
All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.