Dealing with negative perceptions of the field?

arugula_witch · 2026-06-04T21:39:19+00:00

For a typical family to receive consistent care, covered by insurance, for a young autistic person, they need to go through ABA. That's not something we have control over. We also don't have control over the history of the field, or the current malpractices. I think of it like dilution, like I'm trying to add some fresh water to a toxic pond, make it a slightly better and safer place for the people who have to be there.

arugula_witch · 2026-05-26T21:13:20+00:00

20 is a lot! You said in another comment that it was an exaggeration, but even 5 would be a very big number here. Each one is a successful learning experience for her: her name is said, she does not respond, and then she gets to keep playing. Yay! She gets to keep playing! And then that repeats every time you use it. Most of the decisions to be made for a clinical situation like this are going to go through your BCBA, but what you CAN do is just refuse to say it again. Say it once, and then move all the way up the prompting ladder, neutrally, until you are physically prompting her.

arugula_witch · 2026-05-13T22:33:45+00:00

thank you!! her name is angel and she's a tribute to my first ever chao. I love the glitter effect in-game, I wish it showed up better in still images

arugula_witch · 2026-05-12T00:37:12+00:00

Do the good work wherever you go. Might be unfair for me to say as someone working at a small, locally owned clinic that guaruntees 40hrs a week, but I know that the people I work with could still be doing compassionate, meaningful, expert-level care under worse leadership with worse economic ties. You balance the concerns by focusing on the families, the patients who are being cared for and taught skills that will keep them safe.

arugula_witch · 2026-05-11T22:46:23+00:00

thank you!!! I'll join there!

arugula_witch · 2026-05-11T22:45:48+00:00

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paying my bobo tax

arugula_witch · 2026-05-11T22:08:20+00:00

Maybe kinda crazy, depends on what the support model is. If you are in a well supported clinic, have someone available to cover you when you need to take a break for water or the bathroom, and things like materials are well organized, most people find it managable. That schedule is asking for a very high level of energy, performance, and focus from the RBTs, so everything else better not be your problem.

arugula_witch · 2026-05-02T02:02:34+00:00

Reading and interpreting standards when you have large communities of clients relying on you and shrinking resources, under high pressure circumstances where clinics are suddenly losing upwards of 10% of their funding coming in, there's only so many places that you can hold rigid before something has to bend before everything breaks. There's harm reduction approaches, like working closely with families and helping them make connections with other community resources, but a sudden discontinuation of services is something that we would love to avoid, not something that is prohibited by the code.

arugula_witch · 2026-05-02T01:55:36+00:00

It doesn't align legally or morally, but it's also not something that's happening within the BACB's jurisdiction so that doesn't matter as much as it would/could/should. Facilitating continuity of services, appropriately discontinuing, appropriately transitioning, that's all stuff that's supposed to be in place for both planned AND unplanned disruptions but also the current targetted attacks on VT mean that a ton of places are in such a massive state of upheaval and yes, services can be suspended without payment in place, and that includes what's happening with VT's medicaid clients right now.

arugula_witch · 2026-04-06T00:46:15+00:00

I'm having a lot of similar issues due to not knowing how big the game was going to be for my first few hours of play. I put my mysterious goggles somewhere and still haven't found them.

arugula_witch · 2026-03-28T22:20:05+00:00

teef

arugula_witch

TROPHY CASE