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National Wellness Month: Building Better Workplaces in ABA · ABA Business Leaders

• speaker-0: Hi everyone, I'm April. It's National Wellness Month and in honor of National Wellness Month, we're going to be re-releasing some previous episodes that look at burnout, stress, mental health, and more. We'll also be using this time to enjoy the speaker-1: And I'm Steven. speaker-2: Little tiny slice of Canadian summer. speaker-0: that we get here ⁓ with with our family and friends. speaker-1: Each re aired episode is intended to not only give us and our team a little bit of a break, but it's also designed to make sure that you don't miss out on the best episodes during our busy summer schedule. speaker-0: Whether you're listening for the f time, welcome or revisiting these episodes, we hope that they give you some practical ideas. speaker-2: Fresh perspective and maybe even a little reminder to take care of yourself. speaker-1: And we'll be back in September with some brand new episodes, exciting guests, and some huge news ⁓ that we're really excited to be sharing soon. speaker-3: Until then. speaker-0: Enjoy today's episode and have a wonderful summer and thanks for listening to the ABA Business Leaders Podcast. Hello everyone. Welcome to ABA Business Leaders Podcast brought to you by Three Pi Squared. I'm April. And today we have with us a team from ABA. You guys, ABA's group is becoming quite irregular on our podcast. We're so excited about the friendship that we're we're building with with all of you guys. It's been super fun. speaker-1: Steven. speaker-0: So today we're gonna be digging into a topic that is super close to my heart. We're gonna be talking about how we support RBTs. Behavior techs, BTs, RBTs, I don't know. There's other names for them out there with different, but you you guys, you guys know who I'm talking about. Those of you who are on the front lines doing the day to day work, ⁓ you know, we we thank you for all the work that you guys do. It's no secret. Now you have US RBTs have the most demanding role in our field. So today we're talking about what it means to take care of yourself while showing up for your ⁓ what check-ins and support structures can look like and how leadership can show up for their teams in meaningful ways. So get ready for this. Really exciting conversation. Now I'm I'm very excited about this. I have been speaker-3: it. speaker-0: you know, as you guys know who've listened for quite a while, we've been looking for ⁓ a tech to come on and chat with us. And it's been hard to find a tech. It's ⁓ and yep. Makes perfect sense, right? It may it may not feel like a safe thing to do at this ⁓ in A VA. I don't know. And so Chris so lovingly and graciously said, ⁓ I got an R V T that will probably talk to you later. speaker-3: this time and talk to you. speaker-0: And so enters Rebecca, right? so I am super excited about thank you, I was super excited about this. all right, so let's go ahead and get started. So as I said, ⁓ we have part of the team from ABA here today. And so we have Chris Robinson, the owner, and Rebecca Long, RBT and assistant HR. Did I get that correct? Yep. Okay, great. And then Liz Lockman, HR. So thank you guys all for coming today. And I guess we'll start with Rebecca. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into ABA and your role as a RBT and anything else you want to tell us? speaker-1: I started in the field after I was out of college with my bachelors. speaker-2: ⁓ in two thousand fourteen. speaker-1: started with adults, ⁓ then kind of got into a school with all different ages, ⁓ and then found a VA. I was a BT for a super long time. Came over here and got my RBT and have held that RBT ever since. I think I'm on my fourth re certification coming up in July. and then also have moved into that HR assistant role as well. So helping support The RBTs that ⁓ I am part of. speaker-0: Great. Well, thank you for being here today. I'm really excited about it. All right. So, Liz, how about would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself? speaker-2: ⁓ hi. ⁓ so I have been working in the field for almost about 10 years. ⁓ so I stumbled upon ⁓ the field of children and autism services just by doing a Google search ⁓ when I was looking for an internship during my undergrad at Millersville. ⁓ first thing that popped up, clicked on it, and here I am today, fell in love with the framework that found a passion that I never knew that I had. ⁓ so I started my internship working as a BT, ⁓ graduated with my bachelor's and moved into ⁓ working at the clinic that I was as working as a BT as with doing their intakes, ⁓ bringing in killers for services, helping get insurances, basically setting the stage for them to get into the door. ⁓ from there I found that I ⁓ was doing a lot of like marketing, ensuring that we could service whoever needs us. And then I stumbled into working in a supervisory on the floor position to support the technicians because they're pretty important to the field and success. And then ⁓ after that I found ABA and it continued to ⁓ feel that ⁓ passion and care for our techs and trying to support on the HR side of things. And here I am today. speaker-0: Awesome. Thank you for that introduction. All right. ⁓ Chris, tell us for those of you, for those out there who may not have have ⁓ met you yet, tell us a little bit about yourself. speaker-4: Sure, I'm a BCBA and I started ABA six years ago to provide high quality services to the kiddos who need it most. ⁓ at ABA we specialize in early intervention and intensive language development for young children using verbal behavior play-based strategies and natural environment teaching. speaker-0: Excellent. Thank you. And as always, I just love the name of your company so much. So fun. All right. So ⁓ are we good? speaker-2: Yeah, yeah. I'm just these are all new systems. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. So those of you l listening, we have new mics. You can't see it, but we have new mics. We're playing around with ⁓ trying to make the quality a little better for the sound. And ⁓ and that also means like learning curve, right? So ⁓ as I'm talking, not only am I getting used to this mic in front of me, but Steven's like fiddling with all of the all of the controls. So that's a bit ex ⁓ distracting. But then also my voice is sounding different like as we go, like speaker-3: So anyways, you speaker-0: Life is fun. speaker-2: May maybe we need to hire someone that actually knows what they're doing. speaker-0: Yeah. So anyone wanna come to PEI every Thursday and and help us out in person here? We love it. All right. So okay. So first actually I have a question. I'm actually gonna switch things up from what I told all of you guys that I was going to. And I'm just would like to start off with Chris really quickly because you know, you guys have a relatively small team. However, you've really put a lot of work into your leadership team. And you have a rather large leadership team for for the general size of staff that you have. And especially your HR department. You're like very heavy in HR for maybe more than most people would. So it's it's super unique. And I also think that you from from talking with you now for for a while, ⁓ you've also found it very successful. And so would you like to just tell everyone a little bit about how like the setup that you guys have? Like how what what does that leadership sh leadership team look like? ⁓ speaker-4: Sure. So we have ⁓ three different departments. We have a billing department, we have two billing coordinators, they handle billing claims, authorizations, and ⁓ they field calls from potential clients. ⁓ we have a clinical director ⁓ who oversees the clinical team, and then we have ⁓ an HR team. of which Liz is the HR director. And then we two have two HR coordinators. And ⁓ one of them is Rebecca. And we have a ⁓ Maria who was on the podcast before and she's everyone's ball. speaker-3: Yes! ⁓ speaker-0: Love it. Love it. speaker-4: And ⁓ we've all, you know, worked somewhere or we've heard ⁓ about agencies that are like, ⁓ yeah, we provide you support. And then there's crickets. ⁓ so we do everything we can to our bottom line is providing the highest quality services that we can. And ⁓ we recognize that we have to support our people and that takes a lot of people to do that. And ⁓ with our HR team, I didn't really envision having ⁓ three members of our HR team at this stage. ⁓ we started with Liz. ⁓ she's the HR director now, but at one point she was the only, she was just HR. And ⁓ it got a little overwhelming and we had to add. ⁓ so ⁓ we advertised for a little while and we sent out an ad internally. And ⁓ we were scheduling interviews ⁓ externally and ⁓ We ⁓ we sent out an our ad internally and Rebecca was the only one that applied. And ⁓ we ended up at the time deciding that we wanted someone that had more HR experience ⁓ and HR specific training. But at the same time, we thought about wow, wouldn't it be great to have a hybrid role of someone who really understands the RBT perspective and can also Do clinical ⁓ RBT work as well. ⁓ so Rebecca's ⁓ started off where she was ⁓ it took a while to really like define that role and get it going. And Rebecca was really patient with us because at the time we ⁓ were a little staffed, ⁓ understaffed on the RBT side. So ⁓ we kept her in the RBT role for a little bit while we were planning this out. ⁓ but now Rebecca does interviews, ⁓ she does check-ins. And she still does some direct RBT sessions and she goes, if we have a ⁓ situation where there's like a performance issue or something a little special ⁓ extra going on, ⁓ where staff needs support beyond ⁓ what the DCDA is able to provide in their role, we have Rebecca who goes out and you know shadows someone for like the whole day or does like reverse shadowing where she implements the treatment plan and then the staff watches her. speaker-0: I love it. speaker-4: And ⁓ it's worked out really well for us. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. It really sounds like it has. ⁓ I I love the idea too. And this is something that we all talked about when we met off air to see, you know, to see, hey, how could we how you know, how can we take this information and and share it with everyone, right? And so we were just having conversation off air. And that was one of the things that you brought up, Chris, was that, you know, we talk about growing our team from within, right? But a lot of people just like think of that as like RBT to B C B A path. And and so you guys it took it outside of the box and you're like, okay, well, there are other roles within the company that an R B T could grow into as well. So that's really cool to see that in action. speaker-4: Yeah, and Rebecca knows like if we are short staffed on RBTs again and ⁓ we need her to go fill a s ⁓ a spot, ⁓ she's available to do that. She keeps her ⁓ feet wet in doing direct work ⁓ and is also able to help out on the HR side. speaker-0: Yeah, that's super important because you're like living the day to day as well. So you know, because we all know like those of us who it kind of shift and change our position within the company and or like over the years within our career and find ourselves sitting behind a desk and not down in the floor, right? W with the kiddos. And so it definitely you forget really quickly, Stephen has ⁓ many times he's not a clinician himself, but he's seen it happen. as we grew our team, you know, how quickly people forget what it's like to to be in that day to day. So so that's really great. Well so speaker-4: ⁓ at a autism ⁓ event and ⁓ Liz and I are talking to the parents and ⁓ Rebecca is engaging with the kids while we talk to the parents. speaker-0: I love it. I love it. So so Rebecca, tell us ⁓ I have so many questions for you. ⁓ but ⁓ let's start with tell us what your check-in. So check-ins are part of your role. So ⁓ tell us a little bit about what a check-in is and you know, what do your check-ins with fellow RBTs look like? ⁓ And and you know, I'm kinda curious in how you approach those conversations and like what you're listening for when you're having these conversations. speaker-1: Me, I do check ins different times in the year with each staff, as well as like if they transition supervisors or cases, ⁓ things like that. ⁓ usually I have ⁓ kind of a script we developed. ⁓ I when I came into the position there was already a check in script and have kind of really expanded upon it to ⁓ look at, you know, if you're transitioning supervisors. We have one that is if you're newer to the company, ⁓ couple different things that are more targeted and then I've really built out those questions to hit certain areas. If we kinda go in knowing that hey they're having trouble like getting their notes done during session, I'll ask a few like kind of leading questions and see where I can help them and get that support for them and how I can make it a little easier. ⁓ I give a lot of my own personal experience 'cause I from being in the field have dealt with a menagerie of things. ⁓ whether that's, you know, struggling to get notes done during the day, ⁓ you know, crises at the end of the day that prevent getting signatures, like stuff like that. ⁓ but just kind of talking through maybe issues they're having, building a little bit of rapport so they feel comfortable coming to HR with any issues they have, ⁓ and just really seeing how things are going out there in the field, if there's any issues, whether that's not getting materials or ⁓ not getting enough supervision ⁓ Families crossing boundaries, anything like that. ⁓ those are kind of questions I ask generalized. And then I'll have specific ones that I plug in for like if I hear, I don't know, like hesitation in a certain area, like, ⁓ maybe I should ask this question. ⁓ so just kind of have a lot of questions that way that I've been developing over time. ⁓ as I do keep up that RBT ⁓ certification, so in my supervision with my supervisor and my V C B A, we work on. speaker-2: Yeah. speaker-1: stuff because it's still representing myself as the RBT so that's kind of how I can get some of that supervision in as well. ⁓ if I'm not doing as much direct work. ⁓ so it's a really good opportunity to find out, you know, what's going on out there, making sure that I'm plugged into what's happening with the text out there. speaker-0: Yeah. So what kind of challenges or themes come up most often during check ins? Not of course, you know, as generally as you could speak. Are there specific challenges that that you find happen more often? speaker-1: Think it really is depending on like timing and the kills a lot. ⁓ so sometimes we'll have techs that do have trouble getting their notes done due to like increased behaviors, ⁓ or dealing with that type of thing, or just not knowing when to take a step back and like do those notes. ⁓ so that's something like I see ⁓ sometimes there are things happening outside. We we really encourage a lot of our staff and ⁓ techs to have like a group conversation for any communication with the family and things like that. Sometimes those are not always happening just specifically in the group. So I try to check in and ask about that, making sure like those boundaries are upheld 'cause we do do a lot of home services. So ⁓ it's kinda easy to cross over if you're thirty five hours in home, mom might see you as someone who understands. So ⁓ it sometimes can go a little over and I've been there too, ⁓ as in that tech position. So just kind of being able to understand that kind of troubleshooting here's what I did in that situation to apply the boundary or make myself feel more comfortable if I'm not feeling comfortable. ⁓ a lot of it is just troubleshooting of like, here's what I did in that situation or a similar situation, honestly. speaker-0: So yeah, so we talked it before in our previous conversation about incorporating kids' interest into play and like using preferred stimuli. And you know, I think that a lot of good BCBAs out there will give some advice on that. and not saying that ⁓ you know, you're not a good BCBA if you don't. But like I think it can be something that's that's overlooked, right? And it's like, hey, here's the program. You know, here's the prompt, you know, prompt level we're doing, here's the, you know, ⁓ you know, the stimuli list or, you know, like targets and things like that. But as far as ⁓ knowing like what's in the kids' home, what's in your fun bag of toys that you're bringing with you, how to like we talk about preference assessments and things like that, but like really like the nitty-gritty, not only in in reinforcement, but also in like what stimuli to use when you're teaching, like maybe pulling up if the kids into Mickey Mouse pulling a Mickey Mouse puzzle instead of some random puzzle you just happen to have in your bag. So just being able to like take a step back and reflect and make some of those like day to day decisions ⁓ that maybe you might you know you might not really think about ⁓ adding within R B T training. You wanna tell us more about that? speaker-1: Yeah, ⁓ I know that can kind of be tech to tech too. Like I really just on my end, I really enjoy seeing the kids like have fun while they're learning and that's what we really push for. So even in my interviews, ⁓ we have a question, it's called like our sandbox question, and that's giving them like a real situation to see how they would kind of use those fun things that those kiddos are into to motivate. ⁓ I know I've No, with that look you said Mickey Mouse and it kinda made me chuckle because I used to have to do a voice of Mickey Mouse for many, many moons. And ⁓ that was when we were doing peak, like that was a lot of my stimuli were Mickey things in the home. ⁓ and seeing differences between them or like this one is this Mickey. So ⁓ really personalizing it for the kiddo, I think, i is a little bit of like creative thinking outside of the box. ⁓ and looking at a program, being able to understand the and like what we're trying to ⁓ accomplish with it. Maybe thinking about it a little differently. even just a coex and building up that. I had a kidda was super into Bigfoot. ⁓ and we worked on that as like a motivator first, which not necessarily a super easy one to go with, but she was motivated and so kind of thinking of that too, which I think ⁓ with some experience, trial and many errors, but speaker-2: And then Same with At least for me came along. But then kind of figuring what I like about our model is that you are often just one to one with a kiddo. speaker-1: Bring out your kiddo, for all of your session time. So you really speaker-2: Get to know them. speaker-0: ⁓ so you seem to show up to work with such energy and joy. And that was one of the things when we were chatting last time, I was like, wow, she really loves her job. So what helps you to maintain that? speaker-1: I mean, I think I'm really intrinsically motivated by kiddo progress, ⁓ having rapport with the kiddo, and like them being excited to see me every day. ⁓ which I know isn't always true for everybody and every tech out there, but that's at least how I feel. ⁓ I I feel accomplishment of working through challenging behaviors with that client and letting them know I'm still gonna be there after that challenging behavior. I ⁓ speaker-2: It is speaker-1: Like you said, I like to make things fun for myself as well. ⁓ I know if I'm having fun a lot of the times the kiddos are. ⁓ so it's just kind of bringing that into it. Like your mindset is really where they're at. ⁓ your kiddos are gonna be really receptive to how you're feeling, they can tell. So if I come in excited and, you know, having a good time, then often they wanna join that train. speaker-0: Yeah. Well what does self care look like for you? And I mean, how do you make time for it in your busy schedule? speaker-2: Think it depends on ⁓ speaker-1: The weather for me. I ⁓ really like to be outside a lot. ⁓ so that's really fun for me when I get home. I'll go outside. I have my my animals will go outside and kinda hang out and spend some time out there. ⁓ but also even when I'm with a client, like I do things that I like. ⁓ if we're at the park, like I am swinging right next to them. That's fun for me. ⁓ I just try to look for things that bring me even just a little bit of joy, ⁓ then sprinkle that throughout the day. speaker-0: Yeah, it's so important for no matter what profession you're in, right? Super fun. So what have you learned about what it takes to sus to sustain yourself emotionally in this field? Because I mean, we are in a caregiving field and like especially the techs. Like you said, you may be in someone's home thirty five hours a week working with their children and ⁓ you know speaker-3: Yeah. speaker-0: it to some extent you can show up to work, which is someone's home, and maybe the mood is heavy that day. ⁓ you know, maybe the family's having a tough day. Maybe the child that you're working with d hasn't been sleeping and everybody's crazy. ⁓ you know, it sounds like, you know, you're you're working in like an optimum work situation where you have open communication and you have support and you have like this optimum little like speaker-3: Thank you. speaker-0: support system with within the company, which also helps and is amazing, but you're still in a field where you could really like it's it could really drain your energy, like and and it could really be emotionally taxing. So ⁓ you know, do you have any words of wisdom or are you still you know of what it's like to be able to sustain yourself emotionally while being an RBT? speaker-2: Yeah, I for me it's just kind of maintaining my perspective on things. ⁓ you know, it's not targeted at you when you're having those challenging days where like you might be in crisis all day. ⁓ it's it's really just keeping that perspective of something. This is something internal and ⁓ for me I know just like keeping communication. We're always trying to communicate something like what's going on. speaker-1: I know. It's really challenging. keep like okay, this is not something necessarily caused by me. in mind behaviors communication. ⁓ we're thing. So trying to understand. ⁓ and keep that perspective of really just let's look at what's happening. I know it's tough in this mil in this moment, but like we'll have tomorrow and if we can figure out what's going on then maybe we'll have a brighter tomorrow when we can kind of edit our ⁓ attitude. I also know that like I'm very aware of how I am speaker-2: Yes. Maybe. Dude. speaker-1: Coming off. ⁓ I think really to be a great tech, you need to have a lot of your own emotional awareness. ⁓ then know when like, okay, I need a minute to walk away, like I can't not respond to this behavior, or like I'm overwhelmed being able to really like think about where I'm at and knowing this isn't you know, it's not aimed at me often. ⁓ on those tough days, that's definitely something that I gets me through. speaker-2: I'm getting a speaker-1: ⁓ also sometimes I just need a nap after work. I like get home and I am exhausted. I know, especially in the summertime, ⁓ my last long term kiddo, we were outside all day every day, ⁓ and literally running. ⁓ so I sometimes I even like we're having a fun time, but it is it's really tiring. So when I'm coming home, some nights, yeah, I'm gonna get Uber Eats and I'm going to lay on the couch. ⁓ and so just kind of monitoring that as well and like, okay, I need a break from like the other stuff 'cause yeah, it can be really tiring. ⁓ and having that B C B A to talk it through with when there are things that I do feel are out of my realm of knowledge. ⁓ and kind of just being aware of that too, of like I I am only an R V T. I do sometimes need that assistance or those questions answered. and sometimes things are beyond me and knowing when to set that boundary or when to ask for help as well. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, so what has it been like for you to move into the HR assistant role while still working as an R V T? What what were you thinking when when you ⁓ when you ⁓ you know let the let your team know, hey, I'm interested in this HR position? speaker-2: my thought was kind of like speaker-1: You know, I I know that I am a fairly good R B T when I was applying and I was like, I would really like to support the RBTs the field we're in. ⁓ I previous position I was a lead B T. ⁓ so I was supervising other BTs, helping to teach them ABA. ⁓ doing a lot of the training myself, ⁓ that here a lot of RBC VAs do, which is great because I definitely feel like they have ⁓ more qualifications to teach it. speaker-2: In When my speaker-1: But ⁓ the having that I really also like helping people be successful. ⁓ so I think that just melded really well. ⁓ and being able to come from that R B T standpoint and have some of that like In with like what's practical and actually going to work. ⁓ 'cause I mean, even I even say that in my interviews, text like there are things that maybe a B C B A like they'll set it up and it'll work great in the school, but then those like four hours that you're at home a week, it doesn't work at all. So being able to really like have that open communication with your B C B A about what's working, what's not, and helping to encourage that on my end. ⁓ and giving them that outlet, like even in my check ins, like open place to speak about something, ⁓ happy to hear anything they'd like to troubleshoot. speaker-0: Yeah. Well, you know, communication is such a skill. Let's just face it. The communicating is a skill. And so I don't know the statistics, but from my many years in the field, a large majority of techs are young and have just entered the workforce too, right? And so this may even having a a job may be a new experience. so but even if not, you know, there are people in their fifties and sixties who still haven't really learned how to advocate for themselves or communicate as well, right? Like so I I'm you know, I don't wanna I don't wanna not include a certain tech. But ⁓ what advice would you have ⁓ for a tech who is listening to you right now? It's like, well that's Great. I'm so happy that you have such such a supportive and open environment that you're working in. but I don't feel like I can talk to my BCBA or I don't have like a fellow like a tech at lead tech or someone to talk to. We don't we don't, as far as I know, we don't even have an HR department. but I'm not happy and I don't feel hurt. Do you have any advice for that tech? speaker-2: ⁓ first we'll play speaker-1: Be to apply to ABA and we will ⁓ help you out here. But yeah, I've I've been there. ⁓ I've definitely been there at other other agencies. ⁓ and yeah, advocating for yourself I think is the number one thing. Like I had to learn that pretty quickly of ⁓ if my speaker-2: needs aren't being speaker-1: scene then like I have to ask for that ⁓ and that it's not just gonna be an automatic thing and no one's gonna advocate for me as an adult. ⁓ especially younger techs coming in it it can be a little bit of a learning curve that way where ⁓ you know advocating for yourself and standing up for what for what your clients need, whatever that looks like, ⁓ is is a little bit a part of the position. ⁓ and you know if you have a B C B A who isn't there who isn't speaker-2: You need speaker-1: New materials or adding new programs so that your kiddo can make progress, you are able to say something and you're that's for us that's why we have that HR ⁓ system in place. But ⁓ I would just say, yeah, advocate and ⁓ confidence is a huge part of being a tech, I think. ⁓ if you don't have that, a lot of the kids are gonna tell and then ⁓ not have as much respect and just ⁓ speaker-2: Then speaker-1: wanna build that that motivation and that that relationship with you. ⁓ so I think confidence is a huge part of being a successful tech. So building that and even finding ways to connect with others. ⁓ I know I really like like there's TikTok and things like that that I love to see like ⁓ little AVA stuff. And I'm like, ⁓ yeah, like other tech connected even in that aspect I think is empowering. ⁓ just to know there's other people out there and like how they're dealing with stuff and speaker-2: Second. speaker-1: Sometimes I even find new ideas or ⁓ different things like that or finding new stats of that affect my perspective. ⁓ so just also like having your having that ⁓ person to reach out to or at least look at something to have that connection with. speaker-0: Yeah. So to those clinic or AVA business owners out there. What is your advice to them of how they can support their their techs to help them to teach them how to communicate, how to feel comfortable communicating, who to reach out to, when to reach out? Is there like a certain message that you would have for ⁓ i for those owners out there? ⁓ like how they can help better support their tech? I know we could have a whole conversation on that alone, but do you have anything like just Your what's your first thought on that? speaker-2: ⁓ you're kind of putting things. speaker-1: When your things in place, I would say just having very clear expectations, being as transparent as possible as what those job expectations are, so that they know like, hey, this is your position, like your expectation to advocate for yourself or your kiddo if this isn't happening. ⁓ I know I really like to go back to those like RBT ⁓ like ethics codes and ⁓ everything that goes into that list 'cause I can really refer to it and be like, Yep, these are the expectations, ours align. speaker-2: Lyric. speaker-1: ⁓ so this is what you're responsible for and this is what you're not. ⁓ so that they can kind of be really aware of what they might need to advocate for to their B C B A or things they might need to advocate for. speaker-2: Four and Things that might need to be above that PCBA. speaker-0: Yeah, for sure. ⁓ okay. So Yeah, ⁓ sure. speaker-4: Rebecca, because I know her assignments and she also has another unique perspective. Because oftentimes texts are assigned to a case for a couple months or they're sharing a case with multiple other techs. Rebecca was actually on a case from start to finish. ⁓ can you talk about that a little bit? And I know it without revealing any HIPAA information, of course, ⁓ but it was one of our typical cases. ⁓ I think a three-year-old ⁓ nonverbal individual. And Rebecca was on that case from day one until discharge. So she was able to see a case through. speaker-1: Yeah, and ⁓ that was honestly one of is like ⁓ I couldn't beat her. Like she was the most rewarding kid. ⁓ they they really, really made it ⁓ fun to come to work every day. Even when it was challenging, it was like, Okay, I can do this. Like, ⁓ I knew what was expected of me. I had a wonderful BCBA who was with me every step of the way. it really just set me up for success, but also gave me those tools of like, hey speaker-2: Yeah. speaker-1: Think of a coex. You're in their classroom every day. You know what's around. Kiddos they want to interact with. So teaching those things that were motivating. ⁓ I think it's a lot of just knowing your tech's ability from the B C B A standpoint and ⁓ strength and skills. ⁓ and kind of letting them have a little bit of freedom, but also being able to be like, Hey, this is again the expectation. ⁓ with that with that little kiddo, it was really neat to see them start with speaker-2: You know what's Since speaker-1: literally I think mom and like three or four words and when I wrapped up they were telling me to leave them alone and I was too with them. ⁓ like it it was just really cool to see and the ⁓ just just how much it changed that family's life ⁓ and really really made their lives a lot not only easier but just more fluid. It built the connection family wise and that's motivating for me as well. ⁓ being able to see like speaker-2: They have it. Big to play with. speaker-1: brother and sister be able to build forts were called badoobas in their home and so that was like a really fun one to learn act or to teach actually a badoobah. ⁓ but so like to see them be able to like have the conversation of how to build it when we started like they were argue not arguing but like fighting because everyone wanted it their way. So I I'm I know I'm motivated by all of that. ⁓ And it's really neat to see a case where like yeah they they had not a lot and then speaker-2: The call. speaker-1: Now they're at Montessories. speaker-2: Be an independent like. speaker-0: That's that is a really special experience, right? To be able to see like follow that that that learner from the beginning to discharge because you t you got to see like, wow, how impactful this can be yeah, there were really hard days, I'm sure. It wasn't all like, you know, super like cheery and joyful every single day, every single second. There were probably there were hard times, but still you got to see like how impactful it was on the family and And that's really exciting. And I think having that that experience can help you to maybe explain. I don't think explained as the right way. Maybe share ⁓ like how impactful like other RBTs are if they might not be able to see that big picture yet. Like you can kinda you can kinda relate to that. ⁓ I have so many ⁓ direct RBT like kind of conversation I want. And so I have a couple more things I'll touch on and then I will I wanna kind of sh like move on to more direct, like more HR. I mean, this is kind of awesome, HR. And I think that's part of it is like, you know, I think sometimes we have such a black and white like definition of okay, this is the tech, this is the B C B A, this is the HR person, this is the building person. And and I love how you guys do it at ABA that you You have defined rules, of course, but you also have this culture where you overlap and communicate and help each other. And so I think that's super cool. We talked about communication and how to advocate for yourself. You know, you're saying it, you know, just have to start to learn how to advocate for yourself and be able to communicate. ⁓ but if a tech feels like they are in an unethical situation, ⁓ How can they bring up their concerns in a professional, respectful way as they are also explaining their their concerns? ⁓ do you think that ⁓ well, I I'll follow that up with another question. So how what do you think about like if there are ethical concerns, what advice do you give to techs? speaker-2: Huh, definitely speaker-1: Talk to somebody. ⁓ I think it depends also ethical concern wise, like if it's unsafe or not. ⁓ and having that conversation. I think it's important to talk to your B C B A because they might have more information about whether that's like you've never seen before. A lot of our texts, as you said, are are younger, so not have been exposed to as many different cultures and things like that. So if you have those concerns, I would definitely take that to your B C B A. If you're still having those concerns, then ⁓ I speaker-2: It's a Something ⁓ So my speaker-1: And they're not kind of hitting it. If I would write it all down and kind of like look at what are what are your specific concerns and ⁓ what is like triggering that that concern in you. If it is just the language that's used with that kiddo ⁓ from home or something like that, or like, hey, they're not getting their progress or their treatment plan updated, so they're not able to make progress, you kinda have to know where to go. ⁓ I really speaker-2: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: like having ⁓ we are a smaller company, so like it it is pretty direct path to everybody. When you're at those bigger ones, it it's hard to know where to go and to really get good direction or someone willing to take accountability for what their decision ⁓ when those things come up. ⁓ so it it can be definitely hard to navigate. ⁓ but ⁓ for me I just document a lot of stuff, look at what is com like making speaker-2: Is so. speaker-1: that concern in me and looking at like it all of us are mandative reporters obviously. So if it's that, what those ex again expectations are of like if this, if this happens, do this. ⁓ so just kind of looking at all the resources you do have as a tech, ⁓ and figuring out what's gonna be your best plan of action. ⁓ but I document everything. ⁓ I don't know. I that's that's always been me. I'm like if I have a concern, I'm gonna document it. ⁓ so if speaker-2: You know. speaker-1: Your company has incident reports, that's a great way to put it in there. 'Cause even if it is nothing and nothing comes of it and we find out later like, ⁓ that's just like a cultural thing, we don't ⁓ not some and explaining it out and it's not a concern. ⁓ but at least you have it down, you have it documented and have that there. ⁓ refer back to later. speaker-2: Sure. speaker-0: Yes, that's very wise for documenting. speaker-2: inject on that too. kind of going back to a little bit of what you said, April, too, with a lot of technicians that we are hiring are still very young, new to the field. They're starting to get their feet wet from like clinics, coming from college, graduations. And when Rebecca does check ins, we recognize on our team that the first three months of their employment is imperative. It's kind of like that make or break period. And we want to ensure that First of all, they have all the tools in their RB ⁓ B T R B T toolbox is one of the main priorities. But we also want to make sure if during that time when Rebecca's meeting with them within those first three months, if we're starting to see some petering off of the bridge. And we wanna quickly bring pivot it back. And those are those prints. Maybe it's some ethical things, it could be some safeties, it could be some things that because they're working in the home. fully aware or reminding themselves of that expectation because they're still so new to the field. ⁓ so that is one of the things that we I would say we really like pride ourselves on because we believe that open dialogue and clarity is key to making that meaningful impact. Not only for the client, but also to ensure that they're gonna grow with us. They know the expectations. And they can coincide with their BCBA alongside of that to ensure that we have a quality treatment team ⁓ to not only support the client but also to support the technician on the case. speaker-0: ⁓ I love that so much. That's so powerful. Rebecca, something that we recommend, especially for new techs and new B CPAs even, coming up with that line that they'll not cross. Like, so like and and too, Liz, let's speak on this. Chris too, of course, but like what are your thoughts on what what that line could possibly be? So like if you go in and so the premise of this is You know, let's say that you've been asked to do over and beyond not in the good way. Like, I don't know, this is like kinda shady. I'm not sure about this. I just don't feel right about this. This is just not what I expected from it. speaker-2: relationship stuff. ⁓ speaker-0: Or even like, you know, it you'll see this in clinics a lot where they're ⁓ they don't have clear regulations and procedures on like if a tech doesn't show up or a tech is late and then maybe the another tech is taking on the other tech's client or like some in-between stuff or how they handle bathroom breaks or lunches, you know, naps, like just you know, some of the stuff that's kinda like not severely black and white, but it's like slippery slope. Kind of, and then you you just like you don't really know how far you're getting into it or if you're just kind of ignoring it, and then you know it's the whole thing, right? Where if you ignore something, ⁓ yeah, I had this this s situation where a friend of mine, you know, introduced herself as let's call her I don't know, I can't think of it. This is Sally. And and and and the person was like, ⁓ it's nice to meet you, mmolly. And then she didn't correct her at that point and say, ⁓ no, my name's not Sally. It's Molly. Or my name's not Molly. It's Sally. You guys know what I'm trying to say. And then like every time she came in contact with this person, like it she never, she was like, Well, it's too late to correct them now. Like, I guess my name is is Molly for for this person, right? Like it it you know what I mean. It just kind of can get out of control. And before you know it, you find yourself in a really sticky situation where you're like, Well, too much of this time, I can't make this, make this now. And and so it it's the same kind of thing. It could be little minor things that you just think, ⁓ I'm just gonna overlook this but then eventually it becomes a really big thing or it's like really, really weighing on you. speaker-2: I mean other things too is just like I I think new especially newer techs, they just they may not even know, ⁓ I'm supposed to see my B C B A, right? Like I I didn't even realize there was a B C B A on this case, right? So like things like that, right? That it it just there are so many passionate people. Yeah. That that just they they love working with the kids. They wanna help and then they go from company to company and they're just treated like a warm body that's here to build. And it's so disappointing ⁓ to see that. And and like we did a whole series on this and like there would be just these amazing people just breaking down in tears like I can't do this anymore. I want to help but I can't ⁓ I can't continue this. So yeah, just any anything that you could give to to somebody newer What should this look like? You know, how does it feel? Right? Things like that. speaker-4: We can absolutely cover that. That's a great topic. ⁓ I do want to add on to the topic of check-ins and getting staff to open up because it is challenging and you can set up so many opportunities for them to open up if there's they're out there in a home and you know, BCDAs, if they're doing ⁓ five or even 10%, they're still only there four hours a week. Yeah. If we're doing a full 40 hours a week. ⁓ so that's 36 hours of other stuff going on. And if the tech, ⁓ of course we have the data sheets and we have no notes, but if there's something that's going on outside of that, it's up to us to get them to tell us what's going on. And people tend to be guarded. And we can have like all the opportunities in the world for them to tell us, and they still won't tell us. and When I started ABA, I had all these ideals and I tried to implement doing check-ins myself. And the first one that I did completely backfired because I'm like, hey, let's meet at Panera for a check-in. And sh I I didn't I didn't think it was any big deal. Like I said, it was for a check-in, and she met me and she was shaking. She was terrified, she thought she was in trouble because the owner of the company scheduled a one-on-one with her. speaker-0: No. speaker-4: ⁓ so having Rebecca as a peer in that role has been so super valuable because tax really feel that they can open up to her. speaker-0: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. speaker-1: Yeah. It's pretty nice to do a lot of their interviews and then I'm like the first speaker-2: And I think for me like night it's You know what the roles are. Really. ⁓ speaker-1: Just really making them aware of like who's available. And is always working really well for me to be able to have that like conversation of like yeah this is kind of what I do and like having that again connection. that's what I like about like seeing those ABA TikTok things. Like I like being able to connect with people on things that we both enjoy. ⁓ my own hyperfixations. ⁓ so loving to have that conversation and build a connection that way. ⁓ So yeah it it does. It makes them a lot I think it's a lot easier to talk to me. Some of them still get nervous, especially that first one. They're like and I'm like, This is just a three month check in. Like it is okay. And I just try to keep it kind of especially the a little casual so that they can have that like openness to feel like they can have that just conversation. ⁓ and I try to keep it fairly fairly just loose when I'm having those check ins, especially.