Training, Supervision, and Professional Development in Human Services Organizations: EnvisionSMART™: A Melmark Model of Administration and Operation

By Helena Maguire, Rita M. Gardner, Frank L. Bird and James K. Luiselli

Professional Development, Training, and Supervision in Human Services Organizations provides the latest research on Human Service Organizations (HSO) groups, both public and private, and their use of the Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) model for effective designing, implementing and maintaining services within HSOs. Each volume in this series highlights key concepts and applications pertinent to each division of HSOs, with this release providing program directors and supervisors with the tools they need to develop an efficient and effective training program for onboarding, performance evaluation and professional development for their staff.

• Provides detailed content and components for delivering orientation and new-hire training
• Demonstrates how to use function-based assessments during evaluations
• Highlights various on-the-job training techniques for clinical programs, including shadow training and knowledge quizzes
• Details steps for continuous professional development, including certification and participation in scholarly activities

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Jun 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9780323855655

Helena Maguire

Helena Maguire serves as the Executive Director of Melmark New England. She oversees the development and implementation of programs and services, as well as the daily operations for Melmark New England. She develops strategic objectives for the Massachusetts division, and provides leadership to direct reports in order to assure the achievement of these objectives. Ms. Maguire supports the CEO and Board of Directors through various committees and activities, and assumes responsibility for policy development, quality assurance, risk management, regulatory compliance, fiscal integrity, and excellence in care and delivery of all services. Ms. Maguire has worked extensively in the field of community-based human service delivery systems in Massachusetts. She has served as a Program Director at Vinfen Corporation and as the Director of Adult Services at the May Institute. In both positions, Ms. Maguire was responsible for the development and implementation of staff orientation curriculum, as well as supervisory personnel education and in-service training for all staff. Ms. Maguire has presented numerous papers on staff management and staff training techniques, both at the local level and at the national level. Ms. Maguire is an Adjunct Professor at Endicott College, where she teaches all Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)-based courses for its Master’s program, and the University of Massachusetts-Boston, where she leads a five-course graduate series on ABA.

Book preview

Front Cover for Training, Supervision, and Professional Development in Human Services Organizations - EnvisionSMART™: A Melmark Model of Administration and Operation - 1st edition - by Helena Maguire, Rita M. Gardner, Frank L. Bird, James K. Luiselli

Training, Supervision, and Professional Development in Human Services Organizations

EnvisionSMART™: A Melmark Model of Administration and Operation

Helena Maguire

Melmark New England, MA, United States

Rita M. Gardner

Melmark, Berwyn, PA, United States

Frank L. Bird

Melmark, Berwyn, PA, United States

James K. Luiselli

Melmark New England, MA, United States

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

EnvisionSMART™ guidebook series

Series preface

Chapter 1. Overview of organizational behavior management within human services organizations

Abstract

Organizational behavior management priorities within human services organizations

Chapter summary

Chapter 2. Training

Abstract

New employee training content, methods, and evaluation

On-site training content, methods, and evaluation

Senior clinician training content, methods, and evaluation

Chapter summary

Chapter 3. Supervision

Abstract

Supervisor training content, methods, and evaluation

Chapter summary

Chapter 4. Professional development

Abstract

Consultation

Supervision

Public speaking

Research

Reading peer-reviewed literature

Professional development content and programs

Chapter summary

Chapter 5. Conclusions

Abstract

Bibliography

Index

Copyright

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EnvisionSMART™ guidebook series

Training, Supervision, and Professional Development in Human Services Organizations

EnvisionSMART™: A Melmark Model of Administration and Operation

Helena Maguire, Rita M. Gardner, Frank L. Bird, and James K. Luiselli

Clinical Systems and Programming in Human Services Organizations

EnvisionSMART™: A Melmark Model of Administration and Operation

Frank L. Bird, Helena Maguire, Jill M. Harper, Rita M. Gardner, Andrew Shlesinger, and James K. Luiselli

Educational Practices in Human Services Organizations

EnvisionSMART™: A Melmark Model of Administration and Operation

Helena Maguire, Frank L. Bird, Silva Orchanian, Rita M. Gardner, and James K. Luiselli

Management, Operation, and Program Development in Human Services Organizations

EnvisionSMART™: A Melmark Model of Administration and Operation

Rita M. Gardner, Frank L. Bird, Helena Maguire, Shawn P. Quigley, and James K. Luiselli

Series preface

Organizational behavior management (OBM) is an effective approach to designing, implementing, and maintaining exemplary educational and treatment services within human services organizations for children and adults who have intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), neurodevelopmental disorders, brain injury, and other challenging conditions (Luiselli, 2018; McGee & Diener, 2010; Reid & Parsons, 2000). An OBM orientation is informed by principles and methods of applied behavior analysis (ABA), behavior systems analysis (BSA), and performance management (PM), with emphasis on large-scale change through high-quality and integrity-focused training, supervision, intervention, and outcome evaluation (Luiselli, Gardner, Bird, Maguire, & Harper, 2022).

While there is research support for OBM within human services organizations (Gravina et al., 2019), many service settings are in need of program-building strategies and steps to begin the process of organizational development. Other settings may have some elements of OBM at the earliest stages but require direction to fully implement a systems model. Further, some settings embrace OBM with the desire for elaboration, refinement, and innovation of already existing operations.

The EnvisionSMART™ guidebook series represents nearly 25 years of administration and operation at Melmark, a multistate human services organization serving children and adults with IDD, neurodevelopmental disorders, and brain injury. The purpose of the series is to assist organizations in delivering high-quality education, treatment, training, supervision, administration, professional development, and behavioral healthcare services, particularly settings with limited resources and capacity. We present an integrated approach featuring practitioner guidelines to improve provider capability by incorporating evidence-based and field-tested systems, procedures, and methodologies. The guidebooks are written in user-friendly language that instructs the readers about what to do and how to do it with reference to numerous charts, checklists, recording forms, guided notes, and pragmatic measurement protocols. Research conducted at Melmark and illustrative studies are reported throughout each guidebook.

The first guidebook, Training, Supervision, and Professional Development in Human Services Organizations, details the application of OBM principles and procedures for efficiently and effectively training and supervising employees in all aspects of service delivery. The benefits of systems-wide training and supervision include but are not limited to (1) preventing burn out often experienced by direct-care employees, (2) properly allocating required resources, and (3) creating a culture dedicated to exemplary education, treatment, and habilitation. The guidebook addresses performance diagnostics within OBM and covers behavioral systems engineering, knowledge management, and a conceptual framework that leads to and aligns with performance improvement initiatives at all levels of an organization. Our training model presents procedures for moving employees from orientation training to on-the-job performance expectations. Training provides postorientation employees with systems that ensure competent implementation of programming based on shadowed instruction from direct supervisors, knowledge quizzes and observation-generated performance feedback, continuous progress monitoring, and performance-informed goal-setting. A chapter on supervision is devoted to contemporary practices and guidelines across multiple disciplines and with specificity among behavior analysts. Key topics of supervision are competency assessment, ethics, promoting satisfactory supervisory relationships, evaluating supervision effectiveness, and social validity. In the area of professional development, the guidebook highlights the support of employees through advanced training opportunities, collaboration with organization leaders, certification, continuing education, and participation in scholarly activities.

Clinical Systems and Programming in Human Services Organizations outlines and describes an organizational model for training clinicians and behavior analysts to implement essential assessment, intervention, and evaluation practices with service recipients and care providers. The model incorporates senior-level mentoring and supervision as well as performance criteria that demonstrate training effectiveness. We emphasize several clinical competencies and the steps needed to train and maintain them, notably data recording and analysis, preference and functional behavioral assessment, functional analysis, formulation of behavior support plans, and competency appraisals. In separate chapters, the guidebook explores clinical services and programing dedicated to health and wellness and the critical role of clinicians in the area of restrictive behavior management practices. A final chapter on systems design offers an organizational framework for establishing clinically responsive environments formed of interdisciplinary collaboration, empirically focused policies and procedures, and outcome evaluation.

The third guidebook, Educational Practices in Human Services Organizations, begins with a chapter about state and federal regulatory guidelines governing implementation of special education services. The emphasis is on methods to ensure legal compliance with regulations, building a workforce of credentialed and experienced professionals, the Individualized Education Program process, and teacher training. Subsequently, we discuss several elements comprising skill-based and curriculum-based assessment, assessment scope and sequence, and assessment-derived teaching strategies. A chapter concerned with instructional methodologies includes discrete trial training, errorless learning, and incidental teaching within a comprehensive model of educational services. This chapter also addresses automated instruction and assistive technology applications, curriculum development, and constructing lesson plans. Additional focus explains and illustrates a computational system of data recording for evaluating learning outcomes, assessing performance competencies of students, documenting skill acquisition, and data-informed decision-making. This guidebook stresses interdisciplinary service teams that build and maintain collaboration among special education providers.

In Management, Operations, and Program Development in Human Services Organizations, the guidebook specifies leadership priorities from an OBM framework, notably behavioral systems engineering, interdepartmental coordination, information sharing, PM, and continuous quality improvement. We elaborate on several operations to establish and implement an administratively responsive environment, including management and assessment of workman compensation data, trend analysis and strategies to address employee retention, compliance with state and federal regulations, safety data of both personnel and consumers served, administrative management, and progressive responsiveness to agency crises. Later chapters illustrate procedures for establishing a board of directors, including committee standing, composition of members, orientation and training, board structure, board engagement, and board reporting. This guidebook summarizes organizational design of senior leadership teams which oversee large-scale human services administration, including strategic and succession planning. Like the other guidebooks in the series, it contains graphics, checklists, flowcharts, and similar procedural protocols.

These four guidebooks reflect Melmark’s vision to expand and raise the quality of human services organizations throughout the country. The mission is driven by core commitments to compassionate care, procedural integrity, a highly trained workforce, evidence-based practices, unified culture, and best outcomes within a high-performance model that values every individual, every day and embodies diversity, equity, and inclusiveness among stakeholders. Our hope is that the EnvisionSMART™ guidebook series will appeal to a broad audience of professionals who operate human services organizations, specifically presidents/CEOs, department heads (e.g., human resources, operations, finances, education, clinical services, training); administrative managers; and quality control personnel. The guidebook series also targets many professional disciplines responsible for client care from an OBM perspective, commonly psychologists, behavior analysts, educators, therapy specialists, nurses, and consultants. Finally, the guidebook series is relevant for academic instructors and researchers, graduate students, and trainees completing doctoral internships and postdoctoral fellowships in programs devoted to organizational psychology, behavioral psychology, ABA, special education, and human services administration.

References

Gravina et al., 2019 Gravina N, Villacorta J, Albert K, Clark R, Curry S, Wilder D. A literature review of organizational behavior management interventions in human services settings from 1990 to 2016. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. 2019;38:191–224 https://doi.org/10.1080/01608061.2018.1454872.

Luiselli, 2018 Luiselli JK. Organizational behavior management applications in human services programs. In: Wine B, Pritchard J, eds. Organizational behavior management: The essentials. Hedgehog Publishers 2018;340–363.

Luiselli et al., 2022 Luiselli JK, Gardner RM, Bird F, Maguire H, Harper JM. Organizational behavior management in human services settings: Conducting and disseminating research that improves client outcomes, employee performance, and systems development. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management 2022; Published online: 17 January 2022.

McGee and Diener, 2010 McGee HM, Diener LH. Behavioral systems analysis in health and human services. Behavior Modification. 2010;34:415–442 https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445510383527.

Reid and Parsons, 2000 Reid DH, Parsons MB. Organizational behavior management in human service settings. In: Austin J, Carr JE, eds. Handbook of applied behavior analysis. Context Press 2000;275–294.

Chapter 1

Overview of organizational behavior management within human services organizations

Abstract

Organizational behavior management (OBM) is a subspecialty of applied behavior analysis that targets the performance of individuals and systems within business, manufacturing, and industry. Four decades ago, Hall in 1980 proposed that the objective of OBM was to "establish a technology of