Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 2
The Professional Affairs Board
By Dr. Thomas Zane
Professional Affairs Board Coordinator
Within ABA, there exists the Professional Affairs Committee (PAC). This brief report describes its mission and activities.
The mission of the PAC is to focus on the practice of behavior analysis, including BACB certification support, continuing education, codes of ethics, practice standards, legislation, and public policy. Generally, the PAC solicits concerns, questions, and suggestions from behavior analysts, decides what to do about them, and eventually reports this information to ABA Council in the form of recommendations on which the Council deliberates when deciding ABA policy.
The current members of the PAC are Keith Allen (University of Nebraska Medical Center), Saul Axelrod ( Temple University), James Mulick (The Ohio State University), Kim Schreck ( Pennsylvania State University), Michael Weinberg (Professional Education Resources and Conference Services, Milford, MA), Thomas Zane (The Evergreen Center, Milford, MA, Chair), and Jennifer Zarcone (University of Rochester Medical Center). All of these members volunteer their time and work diligently on the activities of the committee, and are to be commended for their service (I want to personally thank Jennifer Zarcone for serving. Not only does she contribute significantly, but by having her on the committee, I am finally not the last name listed).
The PAC works this way: we solicit concerns from behavior analysts, and the committee members then decide upon which concerns to study. We usually receive information from behavior analysts through the annual PAC symposium (i.e., business meeting) at the annual ABA convention. Up until a few years ago, the PAC business meeting was held at 7:00 am one morning of the convention. Attendance was slim-to-none. For the past two years, we have held a symposium during the day, during which we have two to four brief presentations by PAC members or invited persons (such as Jerry Shook, Behavior Analyst Certification Board), and then solicit comments and concerns from the attendees. We view these symposia as very effective in generating a wealth of information from practicing behavior analysts regarding the concerns and issues they face in their daily work. The PAC members then form working groups to investigate each concern. We eventually decide whether or not to make formal recommendations to ABA Council.
At the ABA business meeting at the annual conference, we present our activities and any recommendations. The ABA Council then deliberates on our recommendations and decides what to do about them.
Let me describe activities on which the PAC worked this past year.
Support the Movement for BCBA and BCABA Certification in the 50 States and Internationally
Behavior analysts have voiced concern about the progress of behavior analyst certification recognition across the states and internationally. Many have expressed the opinion about needing a coordinated effort to facilitate this recognition. In response, the PAC and the BACB have undertaken a joint initiative to increase the recognition of BACB credentials across the United States and in other countries.
As you may know, the BCBA certification is currently recognized and services are reimbursed in only a few states (for example, Alabama, California, and Florida). Specific services for children with autism, particularly in home services, are also being reimbursed in Minnesota, Maryland, and Connecticut, although other states are working on it as well. We are developing mechanisms to coordinate information on certificate recognition and funding sources between various state and country behavior analysis organizations. In addition, we plan to develop and support training efforts directed toward strategies these organizations might employ to increase credential recognition in their areas.
The PAC/BACB has solicited official representatives of each state organization to serve as contacts. A list serve (hosted by The Evergreen Center) has been created for this purpose, and PAC/BACB has been collecting information on the status of certification in each state and several different countries. Each representative will have access to the list serve and is responsible for updating the information for his/her respective state or country. The BACB has created a database (on its Web site) that contains the state/country information. Only the representatives on the list serve have access to this information, and our goal is that by sharing this information across the states, we can assist state and national associations in accomplishing official state recognition of behavior analysts and the equivalent recognition internationally.
Investigate the Usefulness of a “Marketing†Committee
If created, this Marketing Committee would present formal rules and recommendations as to what behavior analysts can say when describing what they do. The resurfacing of Facilitated Communication (FC) prompted the PAC to investigate the historical record of formal attempts by ABA to monitor the public media and respond to publicly-disseminated information that is relevant to the concerns of our science and practice. We found little formal documentation, but several behavior analysts provided oral histories about ABA’s attempt at doing so. The bottom line is that there is no such committee at this time; that is, no official representative of ABA is responsible for providing public statements about issues relevant to the concerns of ABA for broadcast. Thus, FC remains touted positively, and it is up to individual behavior analysts to once again slay this dragon. In response, the PAC recommended to the Council that a formal committee be established to either be a monitoring body or identify an existing organization to serve as a watchdog agency for ABA concerns. Additionally, we recommended that a committee be formed to formulate guidelines governing the marketing of behavior analysts.
Conduct an Analysis of the Ethical Guidelines of BACB and APA
Several behavior analysts wondered about ethical standards for our field. We know that ABA officially endorses the APA ethical standards and code of conduct. We also know that the BACB has an ethical code developed more specifically for behavior analysts. Over the past year, PAC members compared the two sets of guidelines. The results showed that although there were areas of disagreement, the two ethical statements generally corresponded and that the APA code was generally relevant for behavior analysts. We recognize, however, that there seems to be an increasing proportion of ABA members that are not psychologists. The PAC presented this information to the ABA Council for their consideration. No recommendations were made.
In sum, the PAC’s mission is to solicit concerns from behavior analysts about practice, including certification support, continuing education, codes of ethics, practice standards, legislation, and public policy. The committee investigates these issues and, when warranted, presents them to ABA Council with recommendations. In this way, we hope to make ABA sensitive to the concerns and problems faced by behavior analysts living and working in the real world. I hope this report prompts more behavior analysts to present their particular concerns and questions to our committee. Feel free to contact any one of us at any time.