Behavior Safety and Clinical Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

This book addresses behavior safety and clinical practice with persons who have intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). It focuses on safety concerns among children, youth, and adults with IDD who are susceptible to accidents and personal injury, lack self-preservation skills to prevent and avoid risk exposure, demonstrate behavior that is harmful (e.g., abuse, aggression, and property destruction), and receive restrictive and potentially unsafe interventions. The book examines characteristics of service settings, including strategies that promote environmental safety, training of care providers to implement safety protocols, and mitigation of risk factors associated with disease transmission. In addition, it describes evidence-based practices at the person-specific, intervention, and organizational levels, featuring service recommendations and directions for future research.

Key areas of coverage include:

• Concepts and principles of behavior-based safety (BBS).
• Safety assessment and measurement.
• Prevention and risk-avoidance strategies.
• Safety skills training with children, youth, and adults.
• Environmental factors associated with personal safety.
• Clinical practice guidelines and evidence-based research support.

Behavior Safety and Clinical Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is an essential resource for professionals and practitioners as well as researchers, professors, and graduate students across such disciplines as developmental, clinical child, and school psychology, public health, social work, special education, applied behavior analysis, organizational behavior management, and all related psychology, education, and behavioral health fields.

James K. Luiselli, Ed.D., ABPP, BCBA-D, is a licensed psychologist, diplomat in cognitive and behavioral psychology (ABPP), and board certified behavior analyst (BCBA-D). He is Director of Clinical Development and Research at Melmark New England and Adjunct Faculty within the School Psychology Program at William James College. He has served previously as Director of Training of predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship programs and Director of Continuing Education at human services organizations. Dr. Luiselli has published 24 books, 60 book chapters, and more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles in the areas of applied behavior analysis, organizational behavior management, performance improvement, professional training, and clinical practice.

Frank L. Bird, M.Ed., BCBA, CDE, is Executive Vice President  at Melmark and the EnvisionSMART Institute, and founder of Melmark New England and Melmark Carolinas. He is responsible for developing and overseeing clinical policies, procedures, integrity, and resources across program settings. Mr. Bird has extensive experience in community-based human service delivery systems, having developed more than 80 programs in support of children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, neurodevelopmental disorders, acquired brain injury, and mental illness. He has published research within the areas of personnel management, staff training, systems analysis, and intervention for challenging behaviors as well as presenting more than 250 papers and workshops at local, regional, and national conferences.

Helena Maguire, M.S., BCBA, LABA, CDE, is Chief Clinical Officer at Melmark,  where she oversees implementation of school, residential and adult day programs, home-based consultation services, professional development, and graduate training. Her leadership operations extend to other organizational priorities, such as policy development, quality assurance, risk management, regulatory compliance, and fiscal integrity. Ms. Maguire is also the primary liaison to advocacy groups and legislative resources in Massachusetts, speaks regularly at state, regional, and national conferences on organizational behavior management, staff training, supervision, and curriculum design, is an Adjunct Professor at Endicott College, and has published several book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles.

Rita M. Gardner, M.P.H., BCBA, LABA, CDE, is President and Chief Executive Officer of Melmark and founder of Melmark New England and Melmark Carolinas. She has devoted almost 40 years to nonprofit management in the field of community-based services for individuals with autism spectrum disorders, acquired brain injuries, neurological disabilities, and severe behavior disorders including design, development, and operation of more than 100 community based programs for children and adults. Among many areas of expertise, herleadership focuses on child advocacy, clinical practice, health service administration, legal issues, public policy and fundraising. She speaks frequently at local, regional, and national conferences and is a frequent contributor to service, policy, and research publications.