The untapped potential of behaviour analysis and interprofessional care

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Treating Severe Behavior in a Juvenile Justice Facility: Teaching Behavioral Self-Management via Telehealth

Adolescents living in residential juvenile justice facilities often receive mental health services during their stay to address committed offenses, yet some display challenging behavior during moments of conflict within the facility. These challenging behaviors could result in risk of harm to self or others, or the individual may experience punishment from facility staff. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of an additive voluntary focused intervention for individuals who continued to display challenging behavior despite participation in "treatment as usual" in a juvenile justice facility. We implemented a self-management intervention, supported through interprofessional collaboration, via telehealth with four male adolescents. Using Behavior Skills Training, we taught participants to self-monitor precursors for challenging behavior and identify an alternative behavior to engage in to prevent overt challenging behavior events. Alternative behaviors were responses incompatible with the challenging behavior, or served as a rule to prompt self-management of further behavior. Results show all four participants increased their selection of alternative behaviors when presented with an evocative situation and a precursor for a severe behavior event during simulations. In addition, three participants stated they would use alternative behaviors across precursors not presented during teaching; however, two participants required booster sessions to maintain appropriate responding during simulations. Outside of simulated sessions, facility staff reported modest decreases in participants' challenging behavior during and after the intervention.

The role of the behavior analyst on interprofessional mental health teams: opportunities for collaboration and enhancing patient care

Patients living with mental illness have needs that span a range of professional disciplines, settings, and service systems. These needs are best addressed through interprofessional collaboration. Behavior analysts can play a valuable role in enhancing patient care as part of the interprofessional mental health team. We provide information about the field of applied behavior analysis and its contribution to the assessment and treatment of patients living with mental health and substance use challenges. We outline how behavior analysts are trained and touch upon the practice of behavior analysis in North America and beyond. We describe collaborative relationships with other mental health professionals and, as an example, review the role of the behavior analyst on interprofessional teams in our mental health and addiction teaching hospital in Canada. We highlight some of the challenges faced by behavior analysts working in the mental health field and offer suggestions to increase their profile and opportunities for collaboration in clinical programs.