A Tutorial: What Every Behavior Analyst Should Know to Effectivcely Participate in Psychotropic Medication Management -- An Ethical Obligation is the kind of topic that looks straightforward until it collides with the speed, ambiguity, and competing demands of case conceptualization, intervention design, staff training, and literature-informed problem solving. In A Tutorial: What Every Behavior Analyst Should Know to Effectivcely Participate in Psychotropic Medication Management -- An Ethical Obligation, for this course, the practical stakes show up in stronger conceptual consistency and better translational decision making, not in abstract discussion alone.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Florida Association of Behavior Analysis
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Join Free →A very high percentage of recipients of ABA services (including children) receive psychotropic medication as an additional intervention which is formally overseen by a medical practitioner. This intervention can involve many drug type and/or dosage changes, often over the course of years, and can include the simultaneous use of two or more different medications. These drugs are prescribed to produce behavior-altering effects on certain public topographies (and related private events), but they can effect other non-targeted responses as well. They often have function-altering effects on both antecedents and consequences that are related to both target and non-target behaviors. Moreover, they have physiological effects typically framed as "side-effects" which can range from relatively benign to potentially catastrophic, and certain substances can produce toxic effects as well. All of these drug-related effects can profoundly affect not only an individual's behavior, but their global experience of life. However, few behavior analysts have received formal education in the details of these powerful chemicals, or training on how to effectively coordinate with prescribing physicians in their monitoring and management. Some behavior analysts may even state that medication management per se is not the province of ABA practitioners. The purpose of this talk is to (1) demonstrate that monitoring the effectiveness of psychotropic medication is a fundamental professional and ethical responsibility of the behavior analyst in practice, and (2) provide behavior analysts with information that will assist them in fulfilling this responsibility and help them effectively coordinate services with the prescribing physician.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | General |
| COA | 1 | — |
| FL MH/PSY | 1 | — |
Thomas began working as a behavior analyst at The Fernald State School in Massachusetts in 1979. He received his MS in ABA from the Florida Institute of Technology in 2000. He has worked for ABA Technologies Inc. since 2000 (originally under the direction of Dr. Jose Martinez-Diaz), where he has provided curriculum content and student assessment materials primarily for the Florida Tech online ABA program. He has taught ABA courses internationally, and provided a range of CE and other online presentations. He worked as an Area Behavior Analyst for the State of Florida from 2000 to 2010. Prior to moving to Florida in 1995, Tom participated in a range of wild animal behavioral research, including nnine years on the wild humpback whale research project for the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Lab at the University of Hawaii, where he served as field director in his last two years. He was lead author for the chapter, "Ethical and professional responsibilities of applied behavior analysts" in Cooper, Heron, and Heward, eds., (2020) Applied Behavior Analysis, 3rd ed. He recently co-authored an article on the future of NCR (awaiting review) and is close to completing a guide for behavior analysts on how to effectively coordinate with prescribing physicians in the management of psychotropic medication.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
279 research articles with practitioner takeaways
258 research articles with practitioner takeaways
252 research articles with practitioner takeaways
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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.