B5-E: Understanding the Behavior Therapist Shortage in Florida and Charting a Path Forward

This presentation will be a symposium composed of three individual presentations that will review component projects that were a part of a grant provided by the Florida Developmental Disabilities Council to better understand the behavior therapist shortage in Florida. The presentations will review the results of a) focus groups of behavioral providers, b) surveys of behavioral providers and caregivers of individuals who are recipients of behavioral services, and c) an environmental scan. Based on the findings from focus groups, surveys, the environmental scan, and other data, we created several recommendations for addressing the behavior therapist shortage in Florida. We will review the current findings and present preliminary recommendations for both families and organizations aimed at decreasing barriers to provide and access behavioral services in Florida.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Participants will be able to relate the variables contributing to staff turnover and retention to their own organizations.
2. Participants will be able to state some of the environmental variables impacting the field of behavior analysis in Florida.
3. Participants will be able to describe action steps for remediating variables negatively impacting the workplace and field.

Speakers