Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 1 | 2009 | Number 1
Polish Behavioral Therapy Association
By Ewa Kuliga- Musio
The Polish Behavioral Therapy Association (Polskie Stowarzyszenie Terapii Behawioralnej or PTBA) is a country-wide non-profit organization, consociating active practitioners of behavioral therapy. The PBTA's mission is providing multidirectional, comprehensive, and professional help to the disabled – in particular, to persons suffering from emotional and intellectual disabilities – and to their families. Another vital purpose of PTBA is promoting behavioral therapy among therapists and academics. Currently, the Polish Behavioral Therapy Association:
- has 140 registered members from every significant behavioral therapy center in Poland, as well as the parents of persons undergoing behavioral therapy and other concerned experts (physicians, academics, students);
- provides substantial patronage for and co-operates with a number of Polish centers and institutions (in Krakow, Gdansk, Kielce, Lublin, Bydgoszcz, and Warsaw, among others) oriented on providing effective help to persons with autism;
- publishes the informational periodical Krok za krokiem (Step by Step) with articles by world-renowned experts on teaching persons with autism.
In 2008 the PTBA focused its activities on:
- Promoting behavioral therapy through:
- organizing specialist trainings for a wide range of attendees (mainly the teachers and parents of the emotionally and developmentally disabled). Over 700 participants attended such trainings in 2008.
- conducting practical trainings (training and observational internships) for pedagogy (The Pedagogical University of Cracow, the Jagiellonian University) and psychology (the Jagiellonian University) students and tutors from other educational institutions,
- endorsing the supervision system,
- promotional actions (publishing brochures and flyers, propagating information via websites);
- Fulfilling statutory activities in forms focused on helping the disabled through:
- Operating the Behavioral Therapy Clinic (Ambulatorium Terapii Behawioralnej or BTC), where we provide therapeutic support for the families of developmentally and emotionally challenged persons from all over Poland. The BTC's operations include: diagnostic consultations for children with suspected developmental disorders (performed usually by a committee consisting of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a speech therapist, a special education teacher, and a rehabilitator) and conducting home therapy programs (the consultations are an opportunity to establish a program for the therapy and the parents are instructed on its implementation; during subsequent visits such a program undergoes the necessary modifications and the parents' skills are further improved). Currently PBTA's BTC oversees home therapy for 400 families throughout Poland.
- Operating the Emergency Intervention Team (Zespól Interwencji Kryzysowej or EIT) - a short-term (up to two weeks), intensive therapy for persons with developmental and behavioral disorders and for their families, facing material and other hardships. In 2008, around 25 families from all over Poland used this form of therapy.
- Obtaining resources allowing further development of the organization and branching out through introducing new statutory activities (including research programs).
- Opening a local branch of the BTC in Wroclaw, which commenced its activity early in 2009.
- One of the more important events of 2008 was organizing a behavioral rehabilitation camp. 11 families from the whole country participated in the event; the camp involved intensive therapy work, aimed first and foremost at instructing and supervising the work of the parents and guardians of persons with developmental and emotional disorders under the care of the BTC. The camp also included theoretical trainings for the participants, the purpose of which was to broaden and deepen the scope of the parents' and guardians' knowledge on applied behavioral analysis.
- The other key event organized by the PBTA in 2008 was the "Czas na dialog" (Time To Talk) conference for special education teachers. The participants included 500 special education teachers and psychologists from all over the country, professionally helping persons with a wide range of disorders, and employing various methods of therapy. The key points of the conference were discussions on:
- the aims and priorities of therapy of persons with developmental, emotional, and behavioral disorders,
- problem issues in cooperation with parents,
- adult life of the disabled.
The goals of the conference for 2009 are to include a post-conference book, which is to collect the lectures and records of the discussions conducted during the conference.
This year the PBTA intends to continue its work with the BTC and the EIT. Considering the enormous demand and the popularity of last year's rehabilitation camp, the PBTA plans to repeat a behavioral rehabilitation camp this summer. As in the previous year, the purpose of this camp shall be to aid the families of persons with emotional disorders from all over Poland, in particular the families of the patients of the behavioral therapy centers supervised by the PBTA, as well as the patients of the BTC and EIT.