Marilyn is at a public event and Katie is not her client, a single mother of a child with autism. Katie saw Marilyn at a local event and had recently
... [Show More] interviewed Marilyn as a potential service provider. Marilyn asked Katie at the event what happened with her decision and why she didn't choose her. Is this an ethics violation.
Yes. Even though it is not her clent Marilyn (the BCBA) is required to respect the privacy of others.
Anthony (a BCBA) is using FC (facilitative communication) in his BA practice and a colleague has tried to talk to him about using evidence based interventions. The BACB discourages the use of FC & nearly a dozen scientific and professional organizations also discourage its use. Is Anthony choosing to use FC to guide his practice unethical?
Yes. Anthony could be reported to the board because he is not relying on scientific evidence based intervention and the school has already tried to dissuade him from using FC.
A BCBA was asked by their supervisor to handle a case to which they did not feel comfortable handling. The client exhibit behaviors of pediophilia to which the BA did not have experience but is being pressured to do an assessment and provide treatment. What should they do?
A. Tell supervisor they are not comfortable handling the case.
B. Ask to refer to someone who is qualified to take such dangerous & specialized clients.
C. Mention the risk of the organization to litigation in the event treatment goes bad.
D. All of the above.
Answer is D
Can training in mindfulness substitute for documented behavioral treatments? A BCBA is as encouraged to attend course but was not confident in its scientific based claims. They did not pay for the CEU course in mindfulness but want to include these hours for CEU for the year. Is this ethical?
While mindfulness could count for CEU hours you did not pay for the course and it would be better to not include these hours. If the course made negative claims about Behavior Analysis you should notify the board.
A school agency has been billing under different client names for a child not receiving services because the other clients insurance provides unlimited hours. Is this ethical?
No. This is insurance fraud and the BCBA should report to insurance company in writing. Leaving employment with this agency would also be wise.
You have an employee come to you about concerns of another co-worker having a drug problem. Should you report this to the board?
No, only those who have witnessed first hand the use of drugs can make the report. Encourage the person who did witness to approach the person directly. It may become appropriate for you to report to authorities or the board if through the process you do witness first hand or the person bringing the concern makes the call.
A BCBA hires a clients parent as an employee. What should they do?
A. If they go forward with firing the parent they should refer the client to another agency. Although not ideal.
B. There is not a problem hiring them.
C. They should terminate services without referring.
A. B & C are not ethical.
A BCBA was pressured by their client to accepted a gift. She resisted for a long time but eventually gave in and accepted the gift. Months later the parents had a falling out with the BCBA and filed a complaint with the agency that she accepted gifts against policy. What went wrong?
Even when friending clients and giving in to small features for good intentions can be turned in to a negative. The BCBA should not accept gifts.
A BCBA is having individuals under them do ABA work they have not been trained properly to do. The BCBA has never seen the clients but signs off on the forms as though he is doing the work. Is this a violation?
Yes. BCBA's provide proper oversight and could be reported to the BACB.
It is okay to begin dating a clients Mom because it is consensual?
False. You should address the concerns with this colleague and if they do not acknowledge as inappropriate you would file a complaint with the BACB.
You are hired by a school to assess child and pressured to provide the report quickly to the school. The school may not hire you for more work if you do not follow through on this request. What should you do?
A. Quickly provide the report to the family so they have adequate time to prepare & possibly seek counsel.
B. Operate in the best interest of the client which is the child, not the school.
C. Both A & B.
Answer is C
A BCBA has concerns about her agency merging with a non evidenced based organization. She keeps working there and is this ethical?
The BCBA got the support of other BCBA's and expressed concerns. They slowed down the merger and were able to limit the use of non evidence based procedures.
It's okay for a school to provide ABA services to a child without parents consent?
False.
A BCBA is asked about children they work with by church members who see them at church. They should
A. Answer the questions about the kids.
B. Tell them she can not discuss her work with her kids.
C. Politely change the subject.
D. B & C
Best answer is D.
It's okay to bill for maximum hours even if you don't provide those amount of hours of actual service?
False. It is illegal & unethical.
You are working with a child who's parents want to try a new miracle cure for autism. What should you do.
A. Share concerns over evidence based research. Perhaps provide articles if the method has been shown to be invalid.
B. Encourage parents to ask pediatrician for input.
C. Both A & B.
Best answer is C.
...
You are working with a family and both parents do not agree on treatment goals. The farther would not cooperate with goals & you want to terminate client. You provided cooperation clause & cindtions for program success as well as termination criteria and you set up a meeting to document & discuss issues. Both parents would attend. Is it ethical to terminate services?
Yes stating reason for terminating is due to lack of client improvement. Also refer to someone else for services.
It is okay to terminate services abruptly without referrals?
False. BCBA should help the parent find an agency or solo BCBA who has the skill set to work competently with the child. Giving at least three referrals is ideal.
A BCBA who completed some graduate work in clinical psych is using insurance funding for ABA services using assessments they are not qualified to use, psychological in nature and does not add information about the function, intensity and level of behavior. I discussed my concerns with this individual but they disagree. What other steps should be taken?
The individual should be reported to the BACB for activity outside the scope of behavioral practice.
When ruling out medical reasons for a behavior a BCBA should encourage
A. Conduct a new FA and start the behavioral intervention.
B. Wait for the results of the neurologist appointment and place antecedent manipulations in place to prevent any of the behavior from occurring.
C. Keep the current intervention in place since it has worked in the past.
B is the correct answer.
BCBA's explain assessment results in a way that is understandable to the client
True.
A parent does not want the assessment results shared with the child's school even the the BCBA is getting pressure from the school to share them. What should they do?
The BCBA must respect the wishes of the parent and they do not have their consent to share the results.
A BCBA has parents asking why we are not using FC. What should they do?
BCBAs do not have to be forced to use FC in ABA therapy. They can educate parents but ultimately can't do much if they are using FC in the home when the child is not at therapy.
BA's involve the client in the planning of and consent for behavioral change programs before implementing.
True.
You have two clients with similar behavioral targets which you've copied and pasted while a few are individualized to each person. Would this be an example of plagiarism?
No. Clients may often have similar programs and targets to each other which you've developed as the BCBA. Copy paste of program is appropriate when that target has been determined as bedded for their individual treatment plan. Copying an entire treatment program without considering the individual needs would be plagiarism.
When fading services is imminent due to lack of family follow through the BCBA should:
A. Make a personal visit to both parents and explain the lack of agreement & follow bough on treatment plan.
B. Recommend that Fading services would be best for child's safety.
C.Draft a contract explicitly stating what is needed to continue services, involvement support follow through.
D. All of the above are correct.
A client was beginning food expansion therapy which a BCBA started force feeding sliced strawberries & the child was vomiting which was done by non certified staff. What should be done?
The BCBA with concerns should file a complaint with the BACB and act quickly to prevent harm to this child. They should approach the untrained supervisor & support staff and if necessary local authorities.
A BCBA is using punishment first interventions. Is this ethical?
No. And the BACB should be notified in writing and letter to the BCBA or faculty using punishment first stating it is not in our ethical code to use punishment first techniques.
A BCBA is not terminating services because they want the continued income even though the parents have expressed it is no loner needed. The supervisor is placing pressure & holding them to a notification contact. The colleague is aware of this & concerned whether this is an ethics concern.
The colleague should approach this BCBA & educate her about why this is unethical. If a client friendly resolution is not achieved this should be reported to the BACB.
A BCBA is taking on more supervises than they are able to effectively manage. Pressure from her supervisor to do so. What should you do?
A. Encourage her to do the right thing & explain to her boss she can not effectively manage junior BA's.
B. Immediately report to BACB.
C. Report directly to this supervisor your concerns & possible to BACB if a resolution is not made.
A & C
BCBA recommends a procedure she has never used before RIRD & implemented right away. It resulted in staff running procedure inconsistently. Is this ethical?
No. Annie should have more training & experience as well as consult the research on RIRD before using. She should also ensure support staff has been trained on the procedure and oversee its consistent use.
Using head & hand massage for calming without data is behaviorally based?
False. Interventions that are not behaviorally based, observances & have data collection procedures are not considered ethical & could be reported to the BACB.
It is okay to supervisor junior ba's over the phone with minimal face to face interaction?
False. You should never send a supervisee on a new assignment without meeting face to face to review the details of the work & conditions of supervision.
It is okay to always count all of your reading hours as supervision hours.
False. Your supervisor is the person to determine what reading can be counted as supervision hours or not. UnTruthful reporting of hours is to be reported to the BACB.
A BCBA is asked by the family to work with multiple non evidence based interventions. They have tried to educate the family on untreated unproven fad treatments and the concerns with using multiple techniques all at once and that there is no way to evaluate progress or failure. Is it ethical to terminate services?
Yes. As long as the BA helps to refer to someone else for treatment although could be difficult under the circumstances.
Reiki is evidence based.
False. It is not appropriate for a BA to be using it as part of ABA practice & should be discontinued.
Which are ways you can stay up to date on BA practices.
A. Attending conferences
B. Reading journal articles
C. Communicating with other BAs on the Internet.
D. All of the above.
D.
When giving a lecture or training others the limitations of ABA should be discussed as well as areas where we do not have sufficient research & encourage techniques be used only with the assistance of a BCBA.
True.
What should you do if your client requires an intervention that you did not learn about in your training program?
A.Use your behavior analytic skills to the best of your ability in implementing the required intervention.
B.Seek additional training and supervision in this intervention or make a referral to another behavior analyst who is experienced in this intervention.
C.Implement an intervention in which you do have experience that would be the next best treatment for the client.
D.It would be unethical for you to treat this client.
B is best answer. Could be D if you proceeded w/o B first.
Which of the following is true regarding a conflict of interest?
A.An example is when parents hire a private behavior analyst to evaluate their child's behavior problems and the recommendations are provided to the child's public school.
B.It exists when a behavior analyst, either alone or in tandem with a client, family, friends or associates of the client, has a vested interest in the outcome of the interaction.
C.It means that everyone has the same goal(s) for the client
D.It exists when one treatment team member has a conflict with another member.
B - vested interest
Your cognitively impaired client is 18 and is undergoing a guardianship evaluation as he cannot care for himself independently. His parents want you to implement an intervention to decrease/eliminate his smoking but he disagrees with this treatment goal. What do you do?
A.Implement treatment as his parents are in the best position to know what is best for him.
B.Implement treatment because, due to his cognitive impairment, he doesn't understand the harmful effects of smoking.
C.Inform the parents that their son is a legal adult and has the right refuse to consent to a treatment.
D.Implement treatment while you instruct the client about reasons smoking is bad for him, as this should decrease his resistance.
C
Your intellectually impaired adult client has a goal of learning to care for a cat in anticipation of getting a cat. You teach skills such as feeding and litterbox emptying. Your client then says she'd rather get a horse and wants to learn appropriate skills. What do you do?
A.Remind the client that she selected the goal of caring for a cat and therefore must stick to this goal for now.
B.As your client only receives disability money for her living expenses and lives in the city, tell her that a horse will be unreasonable.
C.Honor her wish to learn how to care for a horse as client preferences and choices are integral to selecting treatment goals.
D.Have her first get a job at a stable to see if she is comfortable with caring for horses.
C
You are a BCBA hired by a private school to treat a boy with disruptive behavior. Your treatment is successful and the teacher asks you what to do with a girl in the class who also exhibits disruptive behavior. What should you do?
A.Instruct the teacher to use the same intervention as both children have disruptive behavior.
B.Assess the function of the girl's disruptive behavior and provide an individualized treatment plan for the teacher to implement.
C.Provide the teacher with basic information about treating behavior problems, but tell her you can't provide individualized plan.
D.Tell the teacher that it would be unethical for you to treat this child as she's not your client and you don't have parental consent.
D
Your client begins eye poking on the day before you plan to go to Chicago for a two-day conference. What is the best course of action?
A.Have your RBT collect baseline data while you are at the conference.
B.Conduct an assessment on the day you return from the conference to determine the function of the behavior.
C.Do both A & B
D.Put an emergency procedure into place immediately.
D is best. Then A & B when you return.
You are researching SIB. You teach your research assistant how to safely block SIB. Other assistants learn these techniques in less than a week, but she is still struggling after 2 weeks. On week 3 you must attend IRB meeting. That week client engages in SIB and severely injures himself. Which of the following is true?
A.You did not violate ethical guidelines as you provided twice the training to this research assistant than is typical.
B.You did not violate ethical guidelines because the client was engaging in SIB before the research started.
C.You violated ethical guidelines, but you had a good excuse as you had to attend the IRB meeting.
D.You violated ethical guidelines because you did not provide sufficient training to this research assistant.
D
When designing a treatment for a client, which of the following should you do?
A.Conduct a cost-benefit analysis to ensure that what your treatment requires for implementation is warranted.
B.Don't worry about the function of the problem behavior initially, but rather wait to see if the client responds first.
C.Plan how to involve the family, caregivers and other staff who are impacted by the behavior problem.
D.Do both A and C.
D
You are a behavior analyst. Which of the following is an example of a dual relationship?
A.Your son is selling wrapping paper for a school fundraiser and you ask your client's guardian if she wants to buy some.
B.Your client's parents write you a thank you note after you attend an IEP meeting.
C.You invite your co-workers to an Avon party you are hosting at your home.
D.They are all examples of a dual relationship
A [Show Less]