While working my final few days for a client I had been with for over two years, they wanted to give me their Christmas card. In order to maintain a professional boundary, I politely declined. Instead, I offered to let the child and their siblings draw me a Christmas card/picture so that I could have it as a keepsake without any identifiers on the item (e.g., names).
When I was a RLT, a previous client's caregiver purchased $20 gift cards for each team member on that clients team during Christmas. This violated ethics code 1.11 for giving/accepting gifts and I disclosed it to my immediate supervisor, as well as returning the gift card to my supervisor. The supervisor communicated with the caregiver and other team members about the ethics code and politely declined the gift.
RBT using BST on new BT to learn new goals.
While I was an RBT, I worked with a child where mother was the primary contact for ABA things. Months into working with this friend, my wife brought me to a work BBQ where I got to hang out and chat with co workers.
While engaging in small talk, I discovered I was speaking to that child's father. I continued to be friendly while avoiding discussing anything that could lead to anything unprofessional. Towards the end of the BBQ the father asked for my phone number so he could reach out to hang in the future.
It was very unfortunate to tell him that while he is cool, and I enjoyed our conversations it is against my ethical code for me to pursue a friendship with you at this time
The client was part of the BT’s community. The mom wanted to let her go but was scared that there would be backlash from the BT’s mom. This taught us that we need to be stringent in assigning cases in case of conflicts of interest such as this.
I have made the point of discussing the code of ethics expectations regarding gifts and personal relationships outside of scheduled sessions with parents and new staff at the beginning and annually as a reminder to be proactive and sensitive to cultural expectations regarding gifts.
A parent offered an RBT to do her nails because she knew she was getting married soon. The RBT acknowledged the generosity of her client's parent, however, politely explained that it was against her ethical code as an RBT. The parent persisted so the RBT told her that she would consult with her supervisor first. After it was brought up to the case supervisor, the supervisor discussed the ethical code with the parent again and the parent accepted. Issue was resolved.
After working with a client in her home for many years, it was natural to become close to this client’s family. For several sessions, staying for dinner was essential to intervention when working on appropriate behaviors at the dinner table. When the family would offer to feed me dinner, I would say that I would love a plate, and it was beneficial for treatment to have me blend into the natural environment and behaviors at dinner (i.e. eating food when sitting at the dinner table), but when they offered a glass of wine, I would politely decline. It would be unprofessional to drink alcohol while at work. However, out of respect, I did not explain why I did not want to drink with him, I just politely declined.