Treatment of self‐injury correlated with mechanical restraints

Mechanical arm restraints were used to decrease hand‐to‐head self‐injurious behavior (SIB) exhibited by a 16‐year‐old female with severe mental retardation. Although mechanical restraints reduced hand‐to‐head SIB, they were correlated with an increase in other topographies of SIB (e.g., head banging). These other topographies were not significantly affected by the addition of an environmental enrichment procedure, but were immediately and almost completely suppressed when contingent exercise was added. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Addressing social determinants of health: Supporting ex-offenders’ employment through use of the Systems Theory Framework

There remains a need for counselors well-prepared to work with ex-offenders. As counselors aim to meet ethical obligations toward advocacy, they often seek to address social determinants of health (SDOH) challenges. Those working with ex-offenders should be aware of unique employment challenges ex-offenders may face and possess a baseline knowledge of the justice system for pertinent collaboration. This paper provides an explanation of how the Systems Theory Framework may be used to address ex-offenders’ employment-related needs through addressing SDOH challenges and collaborating with the justice system. Implications for employment counselors, counselor educators, and supervisors and steps for future research conclude.     

Aboriginal Practitioners Offer Culturally Safe and Responsive CBT: Response to Commentaries

We appreciate the valuable commentaries that have been provided for our paper “Can CBT be effective for Aboriginal Australians? Perspectives of Aboriginal practitioners trained in CBT.” The international authors identify how CBT, with adaptations by culturally responsive practitioners can be of value for non‐Western and Indigenous peoples. The commentary by Australian psychologists Dudgeon and Kelly questions the value of CBT for Indigenous Australians, terming it a “Western therapy” that is “culturally unresponsive” and “culturally blind.” They also critique the methodology of the study. We argue that CBT can be adapted by culturally competent practitioners to be culturally safe in Australia, as elsewhere. Cultural safety is mostly a function of the therapist, not the therapy. In the Bennett‐Levy et al. (2014) study, CBT was delivered in a culturally responsive way by Aboriginal counsellors within their own communities. CBT is a particularly adaptable and versatile therapy, and embodies principles of empowerment and self‐determination that are central to Indigenous social and emotional well‐being. We are concerned that CBT, which has strong empirical support and has been adapted elsewhere for a range of cultures, including Indigenous cultures, may be being denied to Indigenous Australian clients. There is considerable opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness and versatility of CBT, and variations of its mode of delivery, for all Australians.     

Inching Toward Inclusiveness: Diversity Climate,Interpersonal Conflict and Well-Being in Women Nurses

Interpersonal conflict is a type of mistreatment acknowledged to be a serious problem in the United States workplace, particularly for women. This interpersonal conflict is related to negative outcomes in women, as well as the exclusion of women in the workplace, which highlights the importance of investigating ways to reduce this conflict. There is reason to believe that features of the social work environment may impact the prevalence of interpersonal conflict targeted at women. In particular, the extent to which a workplace includes social norms prohibiting mistreatment based on differences—a diversity climate—should be associated with lower levels of interpersonal conflict for women. As such, the goal of the current study was to examine the impact of diversity climate on the experience of interpersonal conflict in women. Additionally, well-being outcomes—burnout and engagement—were assessed as part of a model of diversity climate, interpersonal conflict, and outcomes. In a sample of 172 White women nurses from the northwestern U.S., three sources of conflict (physicians, manager and coworker) were found to relate negatively with diversity climate perceptions. Diversity climate perceptions were also associated with higher work engagement, and indirectly related to both engagement and burnout through conflict. The findings indicate that cultivating a diversity climate might be an important strategy to reduce interpersonal conflict experienced by women in the workplace.     

Errors of Omission and Commission during Alternative Reinforcement of Compliance: The Effects of Varying Levels of Treatment Integrity

We conducted two experiments to evaluate the effects of errors of omission and commission during alternative reinforcement of compliance in young children. In Experiment 1, we evaluated errors of omission by examining two levels of integrity during alternative reinforcement (20 and 60 %) for child compliance following no treatment (baseline) versus treatment at full (i.e., 100 %) integrity. Results indicated that compliance varied according to the level of integrity in place. In addition, compliance in the 60 % integrity condition was high and stable when it followed baseline, but was substantially lower for one participant and slightly lower for a second participant when it followed the full integrity condition. In Experiment 2, we evaluated errors of commission. For three participants, we compared treatment at full integrity to a condition in which errors of commission were made on every trial (i.e., 0 % integrity). For one of these three participants, we also compared treatment at full integrity to baseline and to a condition in which errors of commission were made on 50 % of trials. Results of all four evaluations again indicate that compliance varied according to the level of integrity in place: compliance was low in both the 0 and 50 % integrity conditions, regardless of the preceding condition. These results suggest that during alternative reinforcement of compliance, the effect of occasional errors of omission may depend on the immediately preceding context but that errors of commission are more detrimental.     

THE USE OF A VERBAL REPRIMAND TO DECREASE RUMINATION IN A CHILD WITH AUTISM

After a pre‐treatment screening analysis suggested that rumination exhibited by a boy with autism occurred in the absence of social consequences, we evaluated the effect of a verbal reprimand contingent on the target behavior via a reversal design. The reprimand reduced rumination to near‐zero levels; we then thinned the reprimand schedule and rumination remained infrequent. Follow‐up data collected 6, 12, and 18 months after initial treatment suggested that intervention effects were maintained. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decreasing bouts of prolonged sitting among office workers

Many workers in industrialized nations spend their day seated at a desk. Research suggests that accumulated sitting time increases risk for certain diseases (van der Ploeg, Chey, Korda, Banks, & Bauman, 2012). To reduce risk, health researchers recommend frequent standing or walking breaks during the workday. In the current study, we evaluated 3 behavioral interventions to decrease bouts of prolonged sitting among office workers. Information alone was not as effective as a treatment package that consisted of a tactile prompt, feedback, and goal setting.     

Conceptualization and Development of the Behavior Analysis Programs at the Florida Institute of Technology

We describe the conceptualization and development of the Behavior Analysis programs at the Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech). From its beginnings as a small master’s program in applied behavior analysis (ABA), the Behavior Analysis programs at Florida Tech have now grown to include three Master of Science programs across two campuses, a Ph.D. program in Behavior Analysis, an undergraduate degree (B.A.) in ABA, an online certificate program that has attracted students internationally, and a hybrid (live and online) Master of Arts in Professional Behavior Analysis program at several sites around the USA. These programs are now housed in the first ever School of Behavior Analysis at a Tier 1, nationally ranked private university.