The Impact of COVID-19 on the Operations of Applied Behavior Analysis Services : Implications for Telehealth and Workforce Support

Objective: To explore the operational and organizational response strategies that Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) service providers implemented to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic and to provide suggestions on telehealth deployment and employee support.Data Sources and Study Setting: Anonymous survey was distributed among Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) certified professionals between April-June 2021.Study Design: An inferential statistical study based on an anonymous cross-sectional mass email survey focused on telehealth practices, workforce support, and employee’s perceived support.Data Collection: All BACB certified professionals (BCBAs, BCBA-Ds, RBTs) in the United States were eligible to participate. The survey link was sent via BACB mass email service.Principal Findings: Providing personal protective equipment (PPE) at the workplace and allowing flexible work arrangements are the two most common forms of workforce support during the pandemic. Factors that significantly impact the employee’s perceived support level are flexible work arrangements (p<0.0001), additional funding for work from home (WFH) (p=0.0003), involvement of caregivers (negative effect, p=0.0052), establishing connections with new clients (p=0.0057), online training (p=0.0006), and online meeting with supervisors for feedback (p=0.0030). With about 75% of organizations offering telehealth, many organizations implemented new online technologies to maintain clients’ attention during the treatment session, but more efforts are needed to leverage technologies to establish connections with new clients.Conclusions: ABA service providers should build telehealth capability and allow flexible work arrangements to support employees at different levels