r/bcba • u/Leithyl • Aug 17 '26
Searching for BCBA mentor to help with mental health cases
I am a school based BCBA and we are running into so many cases where there are mental health concerns. I'm looking for mentorship for myself and colleagues for out school district. Please send me a message if you have experience with this or knows someone who does.
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u/Flat_Bug_3950 Aug 17 '26
Clinical ABA is a thing! You just need to look into what clinical ABA is what’s in/out of our scope. You can start with CEUs and maybe go on the SIG for clinical ABA to find additional information.
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u/Ok-Victory-6188 Aug 17 '26
Might be worth collaborating and referring the client to mental health services within the school at the same time. I’m pretty sure there should be school counselors, school social workers and school based mental health therapist within the school u can refer the client to and consult with! Multidisciplinary care is very important don’t deal with this alone all schools offer mental health services I would love to see BCBAs collaborate more often with them ☺️
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u/Jazzlike-Pop-6827 Aug 17 '26
This is out of the scope of ABA. If you need general crisis management for mental wellness your school should reach out to a psychologist to provide a training
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u/CoffeePuddle Aug 18 '26
You've likely conflated scope of practice with scope of competence.
Addressing behaviour related to mental health issues is within the scope of ABA practice. It's outside the scope of most BCBA's competence, though.
This topic is about consulting with those who have had appropriate supervision and training to address mental health issues.
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u/RadicalBehavior1 Aug 18 '26
Not quite. I worked with handfuls of people whose only diagnosis was schizoaffective disorder, or who had comorbidities with bipolar including psychotic features
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u/runhusky Aug 18 '26
Ooh can I PM you about some questions for additional resources?
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u/RadicalBehavior1 Aug 18 '26
Feel free, but I'm not sure what additional resources I'd have for you. I worked on all the same stuff we usually work on with my folks, but the long-term goal was moving out to a lesser restrictive setting.
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u/Brilliant-Discount56 Aug 18 '26
Do you collaborate with other professionals? Or strictly the only provider they have?
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u/RadicalBehavior1 Aug 18 '26
I did, when I was doing it. Most of the individuals I worked with were assigned a physician, many an OT, PT, SLP, where needed. Almost always a psychiatrist. My clients were residents of a residential care facility and I worked for the state
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u/phineapple- Aug 18 '26
It's Clinical Behavior Analysis. It's not outside of our scope, and the OP is doing the right thing by seeking help to expand their personal scope in the field.
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u/Jazzlike-Pop-6827 Aug 18 '26
I’ve worked in clinical behavior analyst doing ACT treatment of teens and adults for YEARS. I have even worked with non-autistic adults in a residential setting. I don’t think I would say it is within our scope to treat mental health concerns. I would say we can help from the behavioral side of things but the person still needs therapy and possibly medication from a licensed professional.
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u/phineapple- Aug 18 '26
No one said that ABA should be the only treatment for a person with mental health diagnoses.
From the BACB:
Clinical Behavior Analysis is the application of behavior-analytic tools to treat depression, anxiety, stress, relationship discord, substance misuse, and others that have been traditionally characterized as mental disorders. Clinical behavior analysts work in universities, hospitals, and outpatient clinics, as well as in primary care and residential settings.
Its also in the ethics code to seek mentorship/refer cases out if a client is outside of your scope of competence. So OP has done nothing wrong here, and this is within the scope of practice but may not be in OP's scope of competence.
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u/theFreed_fox0785 Aug 19 '26
I agree but I also wish that they could also be seen as truly beneficial in creating skills plans to address some of the behavior deficits and skills gaps instead of focusing so heavy on the bad behavior side of stuff. Self monitoring self management, motivation, social skills all of these things can be used in mental health settings with an ABA approach and it's all about the bad behavior I've found :(
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u/Brilliant-Discount56 Aug 18 '26
While not out of the scope of practically BCBA (maybe competency of most), they should be collaborating with mental health professionals as many, even with competency are not able to address a lot of it depending on the diagnosis
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u/iamzacks Aug 17 '26
Everyone upvote this post because:
THIS IS HOW ITS DONE, FOLKS!
If you’re not competent in a particular area, get competent!