Editorial on behavior analytic licensure: General historical issues of why people oppose licensing and the common replies.

Abstract

The Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABA:I) has started a special interest group for practitioners' issues (PIBA). (1) Under the interim chair, who is also the first author of this paper, this group continues to form on a list serve sponsored by the Behavior Analyst Online special interest group. The list is the behavior analysis and public policy list. On Nov 22, 2007, this list sponsored a survey of its 120 members to decide the SIG's direction. Of the 120 members about 25% chose to participate in the survey. One survey question asked was particularly important: Should the new ABA:I PIBA Special Interest Group (SIG) write a formal letter endorsing licensure to be made available for any chapter pursuing licensing? 93% of the respondents answered yes to this question. From these numbers, it seems clear that the PIBA SIG will strongly endorse licensing (2). Licensing has its benefits and costs and this paper will explore some of the history around mental health licensing and reoccurring questions. But first, we will briefly discuss the pros of licensure. The benefits of licensure are many. Through the combination of both authors' careers (spanning more than 30 years), we have never heard a person say Wow, am sorry that got my license. Indeed, we have heard many people profess I cannot wait to license. We have even heard people say in passing I would not do could lose my license for that. Why? Some of the major benefits to licensing are more freedom to practice, career advancement (3), and state support of practice. The last one is critical because it allows the behavior analyst to function primarily with his or her focus on issues related to the clients' right to effective treatment (Van Houten, et al. 1989), instead of concerns from other disciplines being primary (see Cautilli, & Weinberg, 2007b for discussion of this issue). Behavior analysts are unique in their focus on a right to data driven procedures, even American Psychological Association (APA) places greater emphasis on clinic al wisdom over data (APA, 2005). Increasingly, over the years, we have come to believe that consumers have a right to treatment shown to work and that this is not equivalent to a therapist belief that a treatment will work. Science based versus faith based practice should be an option that consumers have a legitimate right to choose in a free market. Licensure allows for a level playing field so that this choice can occur. Other reasons include: greater public recognition, more students attracted to the field, eligibility for third party payments, and greater public protections. The benefits do not limit themselves to the practitioners. With licensure, comes increased student numbers and with increased student numbers comes increased faculty positions. The greater number of faculty positions means a greater amount of research as young faculty pursues tenure. These factors have driven many professions to seek licensure. Historically, psychology received its first certification in Virginia in 1946 and the profession of psychology first was licensed in 1945 in the state of Connecticut. The second psychologist licensure bill to pass was in 1951 in Georgia. The progression is not always certification first then licensing. For example, 1976 Virginia became the first state to license professional counselors (Pope, 1997); however, national certification for counselors mostly occurred in the mid 1980s and licensing occurred in most states in the mid to late 1990s. The enthusiasm of licensure has carried across mental health professions and now seems to have reached behavior analysis. Is behavior analysis a separate discipline? Historically, the practice of behavior analysis is a hybrid discipline born from a rather unique relationship between psychology, education, special education, speech-language pathology, and to a more limited extent criminal justice and other professions with ties to core disciplines in health care. …