Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 1 | 2009 | Number 1
Hawai'ian ABA
By Jessie Mitchell
The Hawaii chapter has held our 4th annual conference was held in April, 2008, and featured Jose Rios, BCBA, a behavioral consultant from California, as our keynote speaker. Mr. Rios's presentation stressed the importance of strengthening the link between functional assessment and behavioral interventions. In addition, he conducted a workshop emphasizing the importance of being aware of our own behavior and the flexibility to change our behavior if we hope to impact the behavior of our clients. Jessie Mitchell and Jana Ortiz, Ph.D. were also presenters and discussed the challenges and rewards of working within interdisciplinary teams in the implementation of positive behavior support plans. There were about 50 attendees at the April conference with the majority again being HABA members.
This past year we have focused on growth and professional development. In 2003, a small group of people interested in the field of behavior analysis met to discuss the formation of HABA. There were 15 people at that meeting and maybe three people in the state that were board certified. All in attendance were living on the island of O'ahu. At the end of 2008, there were twenty people at the business meeting and a head count of 21 BCBA/BCABAs in the state was established (representing three islands).
Being an island state is one of our greatest challenges. The state of Hawai'i includes eight islands: O'ahu, Maui, Hawai'i, Kauai, Moloka'i, Lana'i, Kaho'olawe, and Ni'ihau. The state of Hawai'i is part of the Hawaiian Archipelago, which includes 137 named islands of which only twelve islands are known to be inhabited. It is often said the further a person or issue is from Honolulu, the less the world cares about that person or issue; while we hope it is an exaggeration, there is some truth to the matter, the further away from the city the less support and fewer professional contacts a person may have. The challenge to any organization in Hawai'i is to include members statewide/archipelago wide. While not all of the islands in the archipelago are legally part of the State of Hawai'i, we would like to assure all inhabitants of our archipelago have access to ABA knowledge. To meet this need we are exploring the use of our list serve to provide structured professional development discussions about professional topics. We started with an on-line discussion of a professional article, which stirred conversation between participants.
Plans for the upcoming year include a continued emphasis on increasing our membership and improving contacts with local universities and agencies. One of the challenges facing HABA is the lack of academic programs in the state that provide students with behavior analytic training. This is noteworthy because several local agencies do view HABA as an important source of behavioral training for the employees. We are hoping that improved collaboration with academic institutions might provide advantages for all parties. A second major goal will be continued efforts to obtain non-profit status from state and federal governments. Third, we will be planning our 5th annual conference and hope to identify possible speakers in the near future. Last, we will be electing new officers in early 2009. Current officers are Yuri Hasegawa, BCBA., Treasurer; Lawrence Takekawa, BCBA, and Brianna Tatekawa, BCBA, Secretary; Todd Addleson, BCBA, President elect, and Jessie Mitchell, BCBA, President.