7 Step Ethical Decision-Making Model

7 Step Ethical Decision Making Model – Bailey

Step 1: Is this covered by the guidelines?

Upon first reading of the scenario I felt that were two issues to be addressed. The first noted was to do with problem behaviour related to the removal of ‘Barney’ from the program and the second was medical which in turn was affecting John’s behaviour. I will deal with each individually.
Barney: As we are not given all John’s history here relating to this issue, I will deal with what I feel has been presented. At the outset I wondered, if ‘Barney’ was beneficial in getting John to perform tasks why in mid-stream his parents have taken this so completely off the table. This made me question:
1. Was reinforcement assessment done on John
In this scenario, Liz, the BCBA is one of the players, and the one who supervises and implements John’s program. Another key player in this scenario is the client, John. According to our textbook, “The “Client” is often a vulnerable who needs protection and would benefit the most from the correction of the situation” (Bailey & Birch, 2017). John has already been affected by his parent’s decision, any further changes to his program and implemental will result in further changes for him, good or bad. The parents seem not to be considering John’s mental age, but appear to be considering more his physical age of 8 when making decisions related to his program. The other players involved would be John’s parents as their decision has had an impact on John, which has resulted in problem behavior which undoubtedly will affect them in turn, as well. Then there is the supervisor who should be helping to address the situation, as well as the agency, and anyone else who they has been accessed for his care. In this situation as John goes to school the teacher, students, and anyone else in contact with John will be affected in a secondary fashion and again in turn,
“The contingency plan is a thoughtful; and strategic analysis of what to do in the event that your first actions was unsuccessful” (Bailey & Birch, 2017). Plan B would be addressing other behavioural issues. I would speak to my supervisor about plan A’s impact, then address the reinforcement and guideline issues. I felt it important to keep my supervisor informed (we are all part of a team) and as well get their opinion and input, because they would have more experience/education and may have had to handle a similar scenario before. I’d speak to guidline105 (b) with her/him to ascertain whether the parents had fully understand services, and that we had provided appropriate information, as well as ask if we had been keeping them informed. I would address issues such as, had a preference assessment been done, should it be redone? Were the parents informed as to importance of the reinforcement and were they aware of the impact of the withdrawal of ‘Barney’ was having? Together we could address any guideline difficulties, discuss issues, and decide on a course of action. Since the supervisor has more authority and I have more direct contact with John, together we could meet with the parents to find a