Newsletter
Volume 31 | 2008 | Number 2
Polish Association of Behavior Therapy
By Ewa Kuliga- Musioł
The Polish Association of Behavioral Therapy (Polskie Stowarzyszenie Terapii Behawioralnej, PABT) is a country-wide, non-profit organization of active practitioners of behavioral therapy. The PABT’s mission is to provide 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 the Association is to promote 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, and students). PABT provides substantial patronage for and cooperates with a number of Polish centers and institutions (in Krakow, Gdańsk, Poznań, Lublin, Bydgoszcz, and Warsaw, among others) oriented to providing effective help to persons with autism. It also has two local branches in Częstochowa and Poznań. The association publishes the informational periodical Krok za Krokiem (Step by Step) with articles by world renowned experts on teaching persons with autism.
Promoting Behavioral Therapy
In 2007, the PABT focused on organizing specialist trainings for a wide range of attendees (mainly the teachers and parents of the emotionally and developmentally disabled). We estimate over 700 participants attended such trainings in 2007.
PABT also conducted practical trainings (training and observational internships) for pedagogy (The Pedagogical University of Cracow, the Jagiellonian University) and psychology (the Jagiellonian University) for students and tutors from other educational institutions, and endorsed the supervision system. In addition, PABT took promotional actions, such as publishing brochures and flyers and propagating information, via Web sites.
Fulfilling Statutory Activities
PABT operates the Behavioral Therapy Clinic—Ambulatorium Terapii Behawioralnej (BTC)—where we provide therapeutic support for the families of emotionally challenged persons all over Poland. The scope of the BTC’s operations includes diagnostic consultations for children with suspected developmental disorders (performed usually by a committee consisting of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a speech therapist, and a special education teacher) 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 over 300 families throughout Poland. PABT organizes voluntary service reinforcing the therapeutic actions carried out in the patients’ homes. In 2007, PABT also focused on obtaining the means to allow further development of the organization and branching out through introducing new statutory activities (including research programs).
A general meeting of the Association’s members crucial for the PBTA was held last year with the guest lecture by Professor Joseph Cautilli entitled “Generalization and Delayed Motivational Systems.”
This year, the PBTA intends to continue the ongoing work of the BTC and commence the operations of the Emergency Intervention Team (Zespółu Interwencji Kryzysowych, ZIK), a new form of statutory activity providing short-term, intensive therapeutic help for the families of persons suffering from emotional disabilities and other hardships. Yet another new initiative that the PBTA hopes to bring about this year is a summer behavioral rehabilitation camp. The rehabilitation camp is to be held for the benefit of the families of persons with emotional disorders from all over Poland, especially for the families of the patients of behavioral therapy centers operating under the care of the PBTA and for the patients of PBTA’s BTC.
Our plans for the near future include the development of two new local branches of the BTC in Poznań and Wrocław, as these areas require a great deal of clinical behavioral therapy as provided by the BTC.