Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 2 | 2010 | Number 2
ABA Colombia
By Wilson López-López, María Constanza Aguilar, and Camilo Hurtado y Luis Manuel Silva
Changes in social and institutional systems in Colombia are having a huge impact on the nation’s social issues. Autism in Colombia is an example; this disorder afflicts thousands of Colombian families, most of which are not able to afford professional, responsible care. These families have started to demand adequate treatments from private healthcare institutions, and judges have requested that applied behavior analysis (ABA) methodologies meet these demands. Several institutions have responded by stating that they already use ABA methods, a claim which begs several questions: How is ABA training being conducted? Who conducts ABA training? How can the public know that a professional or an institution implements ABA? How can the public verify that institutions or persons who claim to be using ABA are really doing so?
The Association for Behavior Analysis of Colombia (ABA Colombia) is faced with the need to work on education and certification in ABA methods. In order to do this, ABA Colombia has started to create a postgraduate education proposal with the Faculty of Psychology at the Santo Tomás University, which has shown interest in developing this proposal. This program will be supported by a qualified team of ABA-trained psychologists such as Maria Constanza Aguilar, Benjamin Giraldo, Claudia Gamboa, Claudia Valencia, and Hermencia Garcia. We expect that this project will lead ABA Colombia, an affiliated chapter of ABA International, to be able to work together with other Faculties of Psychology in order to create new licensing standards that will enable us to certify training in ABA methods. This is a critical process that will require the support of ABA International, since some institutions claim to have taken ABA courses in the United States and then “train” so-called experts in ABA methods in less than 2 weeks. This also necessitates the need for creating protocols which enable us to assess institutions and persons who claim to work with ABA methods.
Private healthcare institutions are about to join together in lobbying Congress for medication-based treatments of autism spectrum disorders. These institutions are claiming that such treatments will last just a few weeks and will solve autism-related problems. The subject is, of course, economically important for private healthcare institutions that pay for autism treatments, as a medication-based approach enables them to keep costs low. These institutions place money over social responsibility, and it is clear that this is a critical problem.
ABA Colombia has held many meetings with healthcare providers, families of children with autism, and other institutions, in order to discuss these challenges. Nevertheless, it is clear that international support is important if we want our voice to be heard—a voice which presents empirically derived interventions. Such support should make judges and healthcare institutions make decisions that pay for ABA methods, as well as clarify what ABA is and what it is not. Finally, this should avoid economically profitable, but socially irresponsible, treatments.
ABA Colombia also worked with victims of violence, following its tradition of being interested in relevant social problems. Together with Santo Tomás University, we held the First International Seminar on Victims and Aggressors, which included the participation of several professionals who worked with victim accompaniment processes from a behavioral perspective. The conference was attended by approximately 100 people interested in the subject. We are sure that this event will be very important to the Colombian social agenda within the next few years. The contents of this event can be found at www.abacolombia.org.co/temp/victimas_abacol_usta_2009.pdf.
We also supported Chile and Haiti, two nations stricken by earthquakes this past year, and created a special space on our website to provide documents and protocols for psychological assessment and treatment in disaster situations (www.abacolombia.org.co/postnuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=404&mode=nested&order=0&thold=0 ). We want to thank Colombian psychologist Luis Hernando Aguilar from the United Nations for this initiative. We also received the support of the Spanish Official College of Psychologists, its disaster situations support group, and Merry Bullock, head of International Relations at APA. They are looking for other ways of supporting education processes. It is clear that Latin America will always be exposed to catastrophes and humanitarian crises, which demand permanent education in psychological attention. ABA Colombia is willing to offer alternatives in this matter.
We are also working with the Spanish College of Psychologists and the Iberoamerican Federation of Psychological Associations (FIAP) in organizing the Sixth Iberoamerican Congress of Psychology (www.fiap2010.com), which will feature over 1,900 presentations. The success of this congress, we expect, will continue to contribute to the success of FIAP's Iberoamerican projects, and will enhance our influence on the Iberoamerican context.
Last, but not least, ABA Colombia has recorded 27,648 registered users of its website and over 400 unique daily visitors (www.abacolombia.org.co). This information commits us to improve and enrich our portal. We would appreciate the collaboration of ABA International in order to do so.