RISK-BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF A CONTROVERSIAL INTERVENTION
Consider this scenario: A family has contacted you about the care of their grandfather, Juan, who has Alzheimer’s disease. The nursing home staff report that Juan engages in frequent elopement from the nursing home facility when unattended, and verbal aggression that has caused disruptions to the other nursing home residents. A review of the files shows that the nursing home contracted with a BCaBA who did not conduct a functional behavior assessment but advised setting limits, being consistent with rules, and blocking Juan from engaging in problem behavior. The nursing home staff decided to incorporate these strategies by restricting Juan from accessing the courtyard or roaming the halls, leaving him to stay all day in his room with only accompanied walks to therapies and the dining hall. Juan’s behaviors escalated and they have stated they will be ordering the use of chemical restraints to block occurrences of the problem behavior.
For this assignment, complete the following:
Consider Bailey and Burch’s (2016) risk-benefit analysis model, taught in ICS. Use this Risk Analysis Worksheet [DOCX] to outline the risks and benefits of a behavior analytic procedure (remember chemical restraints are not behavior analytic).
Prepare a formal letter to the family with your recommendations. Include a copy of the worksheet you used with your notes to conduct the risk-benefit analysis.
Analyze, within the letter, at least five BACB ethical code elements that are relevant to your discussed behavior analytic procedure and this scenario.
Sources:
Read the following:
Bailey, J. S., & Burch, M. R. (2022). Ethics for behavior analysts (4th ed.). Taylor & Francis Group.
Chapter 12, “Delivering the Ethics Message Effectively,” pages 307–322.
Brodhead, M. T., Cox, D. J., & Quigley, S. P. (2022). Practical ethics for effective treatment of autism spectrum disorder (2nd ed.). Academic Press.
Chapter 9, “Common Errors and Mistakes Made During Ethical Analyses and Application.”
Drossel, C., & Trahan, M. A. (2015). Behavioral interventions are first-line treatments for managing changes associated with cognitive decline [PDF]. The Behavior Therapist, 38(5), 126–131.
Lucock, Z. R., Sharp, R. A., & Jones, R. S. P. (2019). Behavior-analytic approaches to working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who develop dementia: A review of the literature. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12(1), 255–264.
