Planning for High-Quality Ethical Decision Making in ABA Service Delivery
- Bryant Silbaugh
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Free Resources for ABA Service Delivery Quality
Planning for Ethical Decision Making in ABA Service Delivery
Ethical decision making is at the heart of high-quality ABA service delivery. The infographic on High-Quality Ethical Decision Making highlights three essential pillars—ethical standards, decision making in practice, and quality control. Taken together, these elements offer a roadmap for planning how organizations can systematically support ethical decision making across all levels of practice.
The first step is to establish the ethical standards of your ABA service delivery quality framework (Silbaugh & El Fattal, 2022) as the foundation. Professional organizations and their members adopt a code of ethics, but service providers must go further by embedding those standards into organizational policies and procedures. This means mapping ethical codes directly onto onboarding processes, supervision protocols, and staff training. When expectations for ethical conduct are made clear and consistent, professionals are better equipped to navigate complex clinical and organizational decisions.
The second step is to embed ethical decision making into everyday practice. Ethics should not be treated as an afterthought or an emergency measure—it should be part of the daily workflow. Practitioners benefit from structured tools such as decision-making flowcharts, supervision checklists, and dedicated discussion time in team meetings. Equally important is fostering a culture of consultation and collaboration, where raising ethical concerns is encouraged and safe. By normalizing the process of seeking feedback, organizations ensure that staff members can confidently and consistently uphold ethical principles.
The third step is to implement quality control measures that close the loop between standards and practice. High-quality ethical decision making requires monitoring, measurement, and improvement over time. Organizations can establish systems for auditing case notes, reviewing treatment plans for ethical adherence, and analyzing patterns in the ethical dilemmas faced by staff. Discrepancies between decisions and standards can then be addressed through corrective action, while strong examples of ethical practice should be celebrated and reinforced.
This perspective aligns with insights from Cox (2020), who emphasized that ABA organizations often lack formal structures such as ethics coordinators or ethics committees. While appointing an ethics coordinator centralizes responsibility, ethics committees bring together multiple stakeholders, reducing bias and broadening perspective. Committees can provide ethics education, policy review, case consultation, and a forum for discussion—all of which strengthen consistency in applying general ethical codes to specific workplace contexts.
Building systems for ethical decision making is only the first step. Sometimes, organizations need real-time guidance when ethical or quality dilemmas arise. That’s where the NASQN ABA Quality Help Desk comes in.
Our team of expert volunteers provides:
Confidential, quality-focused advice in response to tough service delivery questions
Practical strategies to align decisions with ethical standards and organizational quality goals
Support that helps leaders, supervisors, and direct staff feel confident in their choices
Reference
Cox, D. J. (2020). A guide to establishing ethics committees in behavioral health settings. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 13(4), 939–949. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020-00455-6
Silbaugh, B.C., & El Fattal., R. (2022). Exploring quality in the applied behavior analysis service delivery industry. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 15, 571 - 590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00627-y