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2005, Winter

2005 ABA Convention

Opening Event and SABA Awards

Invited Events and Tutorials

Convention Highlights

Organization Members

Dr. Ogden R. Lindsley

(1922-2004)

ABA and the Behavioral Community

Newsletter

Volume 28 | 2005 | Number 1

The Institute of Professional Practice, Inc.:

Individual Lives, Individual Solutions

For more than two decades, The Institute has been driven by a mission to make a positive difference — built on respect for differences — in the lives of the people we serve. As a private, non-profit, human service and educational organization based in Vermont, we provide services to people with special and educational needs throughout New England and Maryland. Consultation and training programs to families, schools, human service organizations, and governmental agencies across the United States complete our comprehensive system of services.

The Institute’s approach to services starts with a commitment to the individual. By addressing the unique needs of each person, we are able to provide successful services to people with a variety of diagnoses throughout the course of their lives. Those we support include children and adults with autism spectrum disorder and Asperger syndrome, mental retardation, traumatic brain injury, physical disabilities, multi-sensorial handicaps, learning disabilities, medical complexities, and psychiatric diagnoses. The Institute’s ability to provide compassionate services to people with behavioral challenges and complex medical needs has won us wide recognition and made us a leader in the effort to support people with disabilities and special needs in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods.

Combining respect, compassion, and commitment with a high level of technical expertise is a key element of our success. The Institute is comprised of staff who have extensive experience and training in behaviorally–based technologies and who actively contribute to the field through publications, presentations, workshops, and teaching as adjunct faculty to institutions of higher learning. Our intensive employee training programs, college internships, and collaborative graduate program in applied behavior analysis enable us to attract and retain qualified and dedicated staff. Using well documented, evidenced-based treatments and supports allows us to translate an individual’s goals and aspirations into meaningful accomplishments.

Our Historical Roots

The Institute evolved in response to two trends in the social policies of the 70’s and 80’s. First, during this era thousands of people with developmental and psychiatric disabilities left institutions and returned to their local communities. Secondly, there was a growing recognition that many families wanted their youngsters with disabilities to stay at home and that a home environment was more conducive to promoting a positive outcome for youth who could not stay with their families of origin. However, once in the community, people with disabilities and families found that neighborhoods were ill-equipped to provide the specialized services they needed. The founding professionals of The Institute stepped in to fill that service void. This uniquely qualified group of colleagues had experience providing community-based programs for adults and children with disabilities and behavioral challenges. Importantly, a number of staff had extensive experience working with children with autism spectrum and related disorders, pioneering some of the first educational, home–based, and residential programs for these youngsters in this country. In fact, in 1980 programs developed by our staff in Vermont received national recognition for service excellence from the US Departments of Education and Labor.

Initially an agency providing technical assistance and consultation, The Institute soon answered the pleas from parent groups and governmental agencies to become a direct service provider. Currently, The Institute serves 1,000 children, families, and adults per year, consults in dozens of school districts, and employs or contracts with over 1,200 staff, providers, and professionals. The Institute maintains its corporate office in Vermont, where a dedicated staff carries out the business operations of the organization. A senior management team and the Board of Directors oversee the activities of the agency; special consultation services are operated from this location as well.

Services for Children and Families

Using effective and proven methods of education and treatment, The Institute is able to address the needs of children with a variety of learning and behavioral-health diagnoses from birth through young adulthood. Committed to meeting the needs of youngsters in their neighborhoods and communities, The Institute takes a child-centered approach to services that focuses on developing supports and interventions based on the unique needs of each child and his or her family. Our services include:

In addition, The Institute provides Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) services, a comprehensive educational program specifically for children with autism spectrum and related disorders and their families. Using the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) and discrete trials techniques, the EIBI program provides instruction to children that is based on a developmentally appropriate curriculum of rudimentary and advanced social, language, and pre-academic skills, while fostering generalization and maintenance. Our program includes training to facilitate re-integration of a child into a typical or special education classroom and behavioral supports for the family and community.

Services for Adults

The Institute serves adults of all ages, with a variety of disabilities, in the states where we operate. Our services are designed around the needs and desires of the individual, and thus include many creative and unique arrangements for people. Although our programs vary in design, we maintain a belief that all individuals have a common need to be accepted and live interdependently with other community members. To achieve maximum competency, people also need to receive effective teaching and treatment.

Our State Operations

The Institute currently operates programs in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maryland, and consultation programs in Vermont. Keeping with our mission to fill unmet service needs, The Institute’s expansion into these states resulted from specific requests to develop services that were not available in the state, yet desperately needed. In the three New England states where we operate, these requests came directly from the Commissioner in charge of services for those with disabilities.

New Hampshire: At the forefront of the effort to move people from institutions back to their local communities, New Hampshire is the home of The Institute’s first programs. Our legacy of creating meaningful lives for people in the community is now two decades strong and the positive impact this has had on the people we serve is unequivocal and profound. Currently supporting over 90 people with disabilities in individual residential services, adult foster care homes, and day settings, The Institute in New Hampshire continues to be noted for service excellence in supporting individuals with challenging behaviors and complex needs. In keeping with our historical roots and the needs in the state, we are currently focused on increasing services to children with autism spectrum disorder, their families, and the staff and schools supporting these youngsters.

Massachusetts: Since the mid-1980s, The Institute in Massachusetts has played an important role in supporting individuals with disabilities and significant behavioral challenges. Our ability to also effectively meet the needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorder, and deaf-blindness or other low incident handicaps speaks to our commitment to serving individuals with complex needs. Reflecting on our nearly two decades of service delivery, we can now say with certainty that the best practice is to support even the most challenging individual with disabilities in local neighborhoods and schools. With a focus on prevention, The Institute in Massachusetts now also provides a wide range of in-home, public school-based, and private school programs for children with autism spectrum and related disorders, their families, and educators. The Institute in Massachusetts currently supports over 150 adults and children with disabilities and consults and trains across the state on numerous issues and topics.

Connecticut: In Connecticut, The Institute has been at the forefront of shaping the nature of services for children and adults with developmental disabilities, youth coping with abuse and neglect, youngsters with autism spectrum and related disorders, and people with intensive behavioral needs. With our extensive service experience, the positive outcomes yielded from our evidenced and data-based treatment models speak to the significant and lasting difference that can be made in the lives of people when effective treatment is provided in the context of a quality life style. As one of the largest service providers in the state, The Institute in Connecticut serves over 200 people with disabilities in residential services, more than 150 people in day and work programs, and approximately 100 children in therapeutic foster care. At any point in time, we also consult to a dozen schools, provide behavioral consultation to numerous children and adults, and offer early intensive behavioral intervention services to over 75 children on the autism spectrum.

Maryland: Mid-Atlantic Human Services Corporation – a division of The Institute – is now in its seventh year of operation in Maryland. Our programs support over 40 adults and youth in residential and day settings and deliver consultation and training to children and families in the greater Baltimore area and beyond. Although most recognized for our system supporting youth with extensive medical needs who are technologically dependent, we also serve individuals with other developmental, behavioral, and learning conditions in a variety of settings. Expanding our services for supporting families and children with autism spectrum and related disorders is one of our current priorities. Our Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention services provided by highly trained and experienced staff are now available in this state.

Educational and Employment Opportunities at The Institute

The Institute’s commitment to delivering quality services is reflected by the emphasis we place on maintaining a highly trained staff. Currently, we employ a dozen doctoral and some 20 master level psychologists and educators, the majority of whom are Board Certified Behavior Analysts. In order to effectively develop and expand our clinical staff, The Institute, in collaboration with Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts, provides an off-campus satellite graduate program for our employees and affiliates. This program offers a Master of Arts in Education, with a specialization in applied behavior analysis. Graduates of the program or those taking select core courses will meet the educational requirements to sit for the national exam to become board certified behavior analysts.

Given our size, our on-going development of services, and the fact that we operate in five states, The Institute has many unique opportunities for those seeking employment and professional development on an on-going basis. Available positions include classroom and home-based behavior therapists, direct support workers, therapeutic foster care providers, shared living providers, clinical coordinators, clinical directors, and program or project directors. Our range of opportunities coupled with an excellent benefit package and supportive senior management staff, make The Institute an outstanding place to work.

This section of the newsletter introduces ABA’s new organizational members. Each new member has prepared a description of its work and services so that it can introduce itself to the larger ABA community. The inclusion of this material is not an endorsement, authorization, sponsorship or affiliation by ABA of these members or their work and services or of the content of the material they present.