Correction to: A Behavior-Analytic Perspective on Interprofessional Collaboration

Abstract

Collaborative service delivery models have gained considerable popularity in health care, education, and clinical settings. Despite the unique opportunity that this new popularity provides for the dissemination of applied behavior analysis, the majority of practicing behavior analysts have received little or no formal professional development on how to participate in teams with nonbehavioral colleagues. The purpose of this article is to elucidate the larger movement toward collaborative service delivery with an emphasis on interprofessionalism. The four core competency domains presented by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Framework are interpreted through a behavior-analytic lens. This article is an initial attempt to operationalize constructs commonly associated with interprofessional educational and collaborative practices including (but not limited to) cultural sensitivity and responsiveness, cultural humility and reciprocity, empathy, and compassion. Since the national credentialing of behavior analysts was established by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) in 2000, the number of credentialed providers and the accessibility of important behavior-analytic services have dramatically increased. The benefits of applied behavior analysis are well recognized for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (BACB, 2020) and in other areas of social significance (LeBlanc et al., 2012). Consequently, practitioners of applied behavior analysis will likely find themselves working closely with nonbehavioral colleagues such as speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, teachers, physicians , and so on in their clinical work. Although there are many potential benefits to cross-disciplinary collaboration, practicing behavior analysts may experience barriers to working effectively among professionals with differing ideologies, professional ethics, and approaches to intervention (Brodhead, 2015; Cox, 2019; LeBlanc et al., 2012). As practitioners of applied behavior analysis, we need to be cognizant that ineffective professional collaboration can lead to interpersonal friction (i.e., hostile competition, communication breakdowns, strained professional relationships, etc.) that can damage our credibility with colleagues and clients. Most importantly, however, evidence suggests that poor collaboration may also negatively impact the treatment process and clinical outcomes for clients (Dillenburger et al., 2014; Gerenser & Koenig, 2019). This concern over effective collaboration and relationship building should not be viewed as an abstract concept. Taylor et al. (2018) noted that behavior analysts "do not always establish and sustain collaborative and caring relationships" (p. 2). These observed deficits can negatively impact treatment delivery and client outcomes (Taylor et al., 2018) and attenuate opportunities for disseminating the applied science of behavior analysis. Despite the ubiquity of cross-disciplinary teams and the high cost of ineffective interprofessional collaboration, behavior analysts report little to no professional development on how to successfully work with professionals from outside the field (Kelly & Tincani, 2013; Tincani, 2013). The purpose of this article is to elucidate the larger movement of collaborative service delivery by providing practitioners with a historical context and description of common collaborative models with an emphasis on interprofessionalism. A behavior-analytic