Crisis Management is a Crisis in Behavior Analysis - Applied 2022
Abstract This session reframes “crisis management” as a preventable systems problem—not a treatment plan. Drawing on injury statistics, ethical obligations, and field trends, the talk defines crisis as an immediate risk to health/safety and locates it as a last-resort response (Plan Z). We examine common failure points that make crises more likely: missing precursors, over-sanitizing antecedents (losing teachable EOs), treating restraint/PRNs as “interventions,” reinforcing restraint through equipment or attention, failing to analyze restraint data, and ignoring contextual variables. The session then pivots to practical fixes: build a consistent, flexible assessment battery (including self-assessment of competence), adopt trauma-assumed practices, and center a prevent-teach-manage model with the “Big Four” (functional communication, attention-getting, tolerance to delays/denials, and independent play). Evidence for omnibus mands is reviewed. Participants learn to graph/analyze crisis events (type, duration, frequency), debrief and retrain from those data, and redesign environments to make crises rare. Finally, we address supervision culture (ditch “warrior” narratives), burnout and self-care as ethical imperatives, and embed social validity and culturally responsive tools (e.g., CIFAI) so goals, procedures, and outcomes are acceptable—and safer—for clients and stakeholders.
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What you'll learn
- 1Learning Objectives By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- 21. Define “crisis” in behavioral terms and differentiate crisis procedures from treatment procedures.
- 32. Identify at least five common contributors to crises (e.g., missed precursors, antecedent over-control, restraint as reinforcement, lack of data analysis, contextual mismatch).
- 43. Construct a flexible assessment battery that includes risk/benefit review, competence self-check, trauma-assumed considerations, and culturally responsive interviewing.
- 54. Design a PTM plan that teaches the Big Four (functional communication—including omnibus mands, attention-getting, tolerance, independent play) to reduce crisis likelihood.
- 65. Analyze crisis-management data (frequency, duration, type of restraint/PRN) and use debrief findings to revise environments, teaching, and staff practices.
- 76. Implement supervision and training practices that reduce reliance on restraint (BST, precursor detection, environmental tweaks) and replace “warrior culture” with safety-first norms.
- 87. Evaluate social validity across goals, procedures, and outcomes (and apply culturally responsive tools) to ensure plans are acceptable and less likely to precipitate crises.
