Behavior analysts are often the most consistent professionals in a client's life, spending more hours per week in direct observation and interaction than any other service provider. This extended contact creates both an opportunity and an obligation to attend to the whole child — including medical needs that may significantly affect behavior, quality of life, and treatment outcomes.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Women in Behavior Analysis
Take This Course →Including ethics, supervision, and topics like this one. New live CEU every Wednesday.
Join Free →Ensuring that the medical needs of clients are properly assessed and addressed is a critical component of ethical practice and compassionate care. For individuals with autism or related developmental and genetic conditions , medical concerns often extend beyond primary diagnoses, with common co-occurring conditions such as gastrointestinal issues, neurological disorders, allergies, and sleep difficulties. Despite frequent interactions with healthcare professionals, individuals on the autism spectrum frequently face significant barriers to receiving adequate care, leading to unmet medical needs and suboptimal healthcare experiences that diminish their overall quality of life. Moreover, research has highlighted that certain challenging behaviors may be linked to underlying medical or biological issues, emphasizing the need for comprehensive care. While behavior analysts understand the ethical responsibility to address these health concerns (BACB Ethics Code 2.12), there is a lack of clear guidelines and training on how to properly identify, monitor, adjust treatment, and respond to potential co-occurring health or medical conditions. This presentation will emphasize the critical role that behavior analysts and caregivers can play in advocating for the medical needs of clients, offering practical tools and strategies to empower them as active advocates in their clients' healthcare journey. By focusing on the intersection of medical factors and behavior, the session will highlight actionable steps for gathering relevant data, fostering collaboration with healthcare providers, and developing a more holistic approach to care that considers both behavioral and medical factors.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | Ethics |
| COA | 1 | — |
Dr. Ashley Fuhrman received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, a Master of Arts in applied behavior analysis from the University of Nebraska Omaha, and her Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Fuhrman worked in the Severe Behavior Program at the Munroe-Meyer Institute and the Rutgers University Center for Autism Research, Education, and Services. She was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Child Neurology and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Division at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and taught courses in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. She is currently an Associate Editor for Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice, on the board of editors for Behavior Analysis in Practice, and has served on the board of editors for the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.Ashley serves as the Senior Vice President of Research and Innovation at Bluesprig Pediatrics. In this role, Dr. Fuhrman spearheads the development, implementation, and expansion of innovative clinical programs and services. She focuses on leveraging and contributing to cutting-edge research and emerging technologies to monitor, highlight, and improve patient outcomes across the organization. She is responsible for the oversight and growth of specialty clinic service offerings and enjoys working collaboratively to best serve patients. One of her primary passions is to increase access to high-quality severe behavior services. Her clinical and research interests involve improving existing assessment and treatment procedures for patients who engage in severe behavior as well as developing and improving clinician training surrounding the delivery of high-quality severe behavior services.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
258 research articles with practitioner takeaways
225 research articles with practitioner takeaways
212 research articles with practitioner takeaways
You earn CEUs from a dozen different places. Upload any certificate — from here, your employer, conferences, wherever — and always know exactly where you stand. Learning, Ethics, Supervision, all handled.
No credit card required. Cancel anytime.
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.