Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavior analysts working in clinical settings are in a unique position: through the role of developing and implementing behavioral interventions, their work often overlaps and intersects with that of clinicians from many other disciplines. For example, the assessment of motivating operations and antecedents often overlaps with the work of psychiatrists and nurses. The process of implementing and evaluating interventions often overlaps with the work of program management and quality assurance. From this vantage point, the behavior analyst may be in a position to impact interdisciplinary collaboration among these various professionals. The panel will discuss two specific cases where this occurred. In each case, the individual presented with multiple behavioral and medical problems for which solutions were initially difficult to identify. Only after focusing on interdisciplinary team building and communication were the clinicians involved able to develop successful interventions. Specialists from management, nursing, and behavior analysis will discuss the approaches they used to achieve this collaboration, as well as the unique interventions it produced.