Misrepresentation by Non-Certified Individuals
The Board of Behaviour Analyst Certification, BACB, set up a program to verify credentials for the behavior of technicians in 2014 which was registered under the Registered Behaviour Technician, RBT (Kazemi, Rice & Adzhyan, 2018). This is for providers of intervention to a wide range of patients with mental disorders developmental delays, including autism spectrum disorder. It is the entry-level position in the scope of the BACB credentials. These patients should receive the proposed remedies and effective behavioral intervention from the technicians.
The validity of the applied behavior analysis should be adequate for the secure development of the BACB. The case at hand involves a supervisor who owns a business card as a BCBA, yet she does not have a certificate in behavior analysis. This will make her supervision of the technicians hard since she is not well trained in behavior analysis of the patients to be intervened. The BACB (RBT) states that behavior analysts should be truthful and provide factual information accurate in documentation applied to the BACB (Neil & Gerald, 2011).
In the case of submission of inaccurate information, they should correct it immediately with the BACB and also continually update any changes that may occur to the original filing. This is not the case for this supervisor, as she did not submit truthful documents about her certification as a behavior analyst. As a fully certified behavior analyst in the organization, I should report the supervisor’s violation of codes of integrity to the BACB within 30 days (Kazemi, Rice & Adzhyan, 2018), because this is treated as a felony or else the consequences would be suffering potential sanction.
If the supervisor is found guilty, they would be ineligible to apply for BACB as a registered behavior analyst, complete probation, release of confinement, or exhaustion of appeals for three years from recertification. This complaint can be taken to the code compliance committee, which will give remedial action to be made on the supervisor. The supervisor also failed her two exams; consequently, she is not likely to be conversant with the BACB code and working standards that are not legible for her job (Neil & Gerald, 2011). However, it is challenging for me as a therapist to report the supervisor because it would raise tension between them. The therapist should consult the supervisor directly about the best representation of her recommendation and testimonials.
If she proves hard to handle or regardless continues to practice, then I will report her to the BCBA-D. As a behavioral analyst and therapist, it is my responsibility to report to the BACB practitioners who have a misrepresentation of credentials according to Code 10.06 (Kazemi, Rice &Adzhyan, 2018). This situation is not comfortable, also keeping in mind the quality of service which is supposed to be offered to the patients, then it is easier to take the hard road.
References
Kazemi., E, Rice, B., & Adzhyan, P. (2018). Fieldwork and Supervision for Behavior Analysts: A
Handbook. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Neil, T. M., & Gerald, L. S. (June 01, 2011). The Behavior Analyst Certification Board and
International Credentialing for Behaviour Analysts. European Journal of Behavior
Analysis, 12, 1, 41-47.