To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, "What's the deal with accreditation?!?!"

In Session 62, Sara Gershfeld Litvak joins me to talk about what accreditation is, what the process is like, why it's important for the field of Applied Behavior Analysis to have its own accrediting body, and most importantly, why you should care.

Sara is the Chief Executive Officer of the Behavioral Health Center of Excellence. If you're not familiar with the BHCOE, it is...

...an international accrediting body created to meet accreditation needs specific to the delivery of behavior analysis. The BHCOE’s accreditation requirements undergo regular review according to international standards for organizations that grant accreditation. All BHCOE requirements and survey content are reviewed annually by content experts. BHCOE Accreditation ® is a certification given to an applied behavior analysis provider once it has demonstrated it has met and continues to meet an assortment of clinical and administrative standards as determined by an independent third-party evaluator.

Sara describes her background in the episode itself, but here's a little bit from her bio:

Sara Gershfeld Litvak completed her graduate degree from Claremont Graduate University. Sara is an Adjunct Professor for the Applied Behavior Analysis program at Pepperdine University and serves as a systems consultant for the California Regional Center system designing Quality Assurance processes to ensure that ABA service providers provide clinically sound services. In addition, Sara is also the co-founder of the Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE) the only ABA-specific accrediting body. She is an education blogger for the Huffington Post, has served as past Co-Chair of the Autism Special Interest Group at ABAI, on the Board of Directors for the Association for Science in Autism Treatment, and as a Subject Matter Expert for the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB).

For more information on accreditation, feel free to contact Sara through the BHCOE contact page. And if you're interested in doing a self-study of your agency, you can find their self-evaluation checklist here.

This session of The Behavioral Observations Podcast is sponsored by:

1. Constellations Behavioral Services. CBS believes that everyone can learn, everyone can participate, and everyone can communicate. They provide outstanding ABA services in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and to learn more about career opportunities at CBS, click here.
2. The Precision ABA Workshop, by Dr. Rick Kubina of Chartlytics. This will be held on November 15th and 16th in Indianapolis, Indiana. This 2-day workshop will guide you through the steps of precision measurement and help you obtain superior ABA outcomes. You will learn evidence-based science and practical techniques that you can implement in your own ABA service delivery. If you're going to attend and want to save 10% on registration, use the coupon code Matt. 
3. And while not technically a sponsor, if you're in the midwest and want to check out a cool event, consider attending the Hoosier Association for Behavior Analysis' 10th anniversary conference. I've interviewed almost everyone on the speakers' roster, so I know attendees are bound to hear some good stuff. I'll also be doing my first live, in-person podcast with HABA's keynote speaker, Dr. Matthew Normand. It should be a good time had by all, and I hope to see you there!