This week we're talking about High-Leverage Practice number three, Collaborate with Families to Support Student Learning and Secure Needed Services. And, Alex, as a practitioner who has walked both lines of being that direct services, as well as now being that oversight piece for you, what does this practice look like?

This practice, to me, it's multifaceted. It's not just for the practitioner side, just doing your thing and providing that service and helping that member, and then peacing out and stopping there. As a practitioner, I feel like you need to make sure that you're doing everything possible to give this member all the services and all the supports that they need in order to be successful.

As you know, I come from ABA. You can't just do that with just ABA. ABA can have a big impact on a member's life, and you can bring that change, but it just doesn't stop there. When you're in the education setting as a case manager, you gotta be there advocating for your member, making sure that all the accommodations that they have on their IEP, making sure that if they have a device that they're using to speak, making sure that they have that accessible. Because there have been places I've been to where a teacher may see that, and they say, ‘Oh, he can't have that. It's distracting to the other kids.’

So it's always about standing up for that, advocating, and also compromising and figuring out what the middle ground is to make sure that, yes, he may be distracting other students, but that's his voice. So how can we figure out the middle ground here? Okay, let's put it over there away from the other kids. So it's very important to me to just make sure that when my member is, wherever they are, whether they're in a school setting, whether they're at home and they're with their parents, making sure that they have everything possible to be successful in life.

And it could be making sure they're getting other therapies aside from ABA, making sure they're getting speech, making sure they're getting OT. If they're an older member that's going to be heavily impacted, making sure that we could give them as many of the skills that they need to be independent, but also making sure that, hey, if we ever had to stop providing services, that the parents can handle it, that the parents can pick up the baton that we give them and make sure that they can do everything that we were implementing.

And, if they're an older member, that they're going to need that support later in life, or maybe they might need a PCA with them, making sure that we either meet with that person, teach them, ‘hey, this is what we did with so and so, we want to teach you. So that way you make sure you. You carry that baton, and you keep going with it.’ And also making yourself available, even though my services end at that point, making sure that if the family ever needs something, they get outreach to me and be like, ‘hey, this is happening. Do you have any advice?’ Or making sure that you be like, ‘hey, this is what we used to do. I can send you the plan so that way you can have that available.’

But at the end of the day, I think it's just very important to make sure that we are giving every possible tool not only to the parents, but also to the teachers who work with their members to just be successful. The success is not only for the members themselves. It's also for those who are in the member's life. And if everyone's successful together, then everyone succeeds together. So as long as I'm giving everyone those tools needed and making sure that I'm doing the most I possibly can, I think that's honestly, the best way to really support everyone. Every single person who has an interaction with that member, I think that is the best way. Just making sure that every single tool is available and making sure that everyone is fluent and proficient and using those tools. It's not just a matter of, like, ‘hey, I'm gonna give you the tool. It's very easy.’ I've had parents in the past, when you show them something, and they kind of get the gist of what you're saying, and then you see them implementing it, and you're like, whoa, hang on a second. I love the enthusiasm, but we gotta reel it back a bit because you're kind of missing a few steps there. And then just going back, refining that with them, and then teaching them all the steps. So that way, when they do implement it, it's nice, smooth, and cohesive, and the members, not kind of understanding, ‘oh, mom and dad do it like this, but Alex is doing it like that. I don't like how Alex does it, but I like how mom and dad do it.’

So making sure that we're all on the same page is so very important. Making sure those tools are being used correctly and are all on the same page is the most important thing. In the field, I always just do my best to ensure that we're all consistent, proficient and if there's something that I believe that could best serve that member, if there's something that if I'm out in the field or if I'm even doing research online and I see something that I'm like, oh my God, this would be great for so and so, but this is something that I can introduce to mom and dad, like a device for a member that's non verbal and a program, maybe mom and dad won't know what program they get.

Whatever little AAC device program I find, I compare. I'm like, ‘Hey, this is what this one has. This one, that one has. These are the benefits. These are pros, these are cons. I believe this won't be the best one for him because of his fine motor skills. He can easily navigate it, the idea of it, I think, would overall be perfect for that member.’ So yeah, I feel like I rambled a lot there, but for the most part overall, I believe just trying to give everyone anything possible to be successful is the most important thing when servicing and collaborating with so many different people that are a part of that member's life.

Well, and I think you're so giving of your time. I mean, every time we talk, you're talking about going above and beyond. And so if that's when you're, you know, providing services through a clinic setting, but then you're also partnering with schools because those individuals are sometimes in the clinic or sometimes in the school. And so you're closing those gaps, but you're going above and beyond supporting the needs of the schools as well as the families who have questions, or your service providers who are crossing both realms. You've always been very giving, and I think now in your current role, being able to also interact within that interdisciplinary setting where now it's so much clearer, so much bigger than ABA, and so the needed services have expanded so much just from you living between clinic and education to now you're seeing all types of services that are available.

So, for you, how do you navigate collaborating with so many different people from so many different backgrounds, meeting such incredibly diverse needs of all those individuals that are coming through? How do you maintain that through line, through which all of those communications can happen?

First of all, I accept that I don't know everything and that I am learning as I go. Stepping into this role has definitely widened my range. Before, I was just very in my own little silo. ABA, BCBA life. Knowing things, but not knowing what more could be done. And now in this role, I get to collaborate with so many different professions, not just BCBAs, but licensed mental health clinicians, psychologists. I talk a lot with different doctors every day. And it's very eye-opening because now it's like, okay, that little, little patch of knowledge that I had, it was great. It was awesome, and it was great for what I was doing when it was curated to just that specific demographic and ABA in general.

But now I'm not just in ABA. Now I'm like kind of in a bigger role, so I need to expand my horizons and know a little more. And it's been really great getting to collaborate with these other practitioners who have all this great information that I don't think I would have ever learned had I been just a clinician and as a BCBA. And I think this was more evident now when I go back to my colleagues from my old clinic and talk and catch up, and I kind of talk about my role, and I talk about the referrals that I do for these members, and things that I believe would be best for these members. And when talking to him, they're just kind of surprised. They're like, ‘Oh, wow, I didn't know that was something that we could even suggest or something that a member could even benefit from.’

Sometimes the existence of some of these things is so out of our purview because we're just so focused and zeroed in on the basics of it all. And it's been very eye-opening, and it's just like, I feel it's helped me become such a much better clinician because I'm able to really just help members in ways I didn't think I could help them before. And as you said, I was always very giving before and helping as much as I could, but my new role has just opened my eyes and been like, ‘Oh, wait, hang on, I could do that. Oh, I could do that too. Wait, hang on.’

There's so much more I could do than just what I was doing before. What I was doing before was great, and it was awesome. But this is next level. This is what I'm able to do now, how I'm able to help out these members get the additional services that they could definitely benefit from. It's been awesome. It's been really, really cool. And just learning the different ways that I could support and what I could possibly bring to the table. It's been fantastic, honestly.

But that's a testament to you and how you see your profession. I love that you're saying, ‘Well, I'm not afraid to be like, I'm not sure, or I love learning,’ and kind of walking into these new professional interactions eyes wide open as opposed to feeling intimidated or lesser than or not equipped properly. You're approaching this as in education, we call that the lifelong learner. You're always trying to figure out what's next and then take what's new and add to what you already have.

But I think there's a certain perspective that you have to have as a professional to be able to engage in any interaction in those ways. I'm thinking, even before we started recording, you were sharing some stories about some of your current members who were going through some incredibly traumatic moments in their lives. And to see their moment through those eyes, that is a gift, and that is a skill. Not everybody's just born with it. Some people just have to figure out how I choose to see the opportunities or the challenges in light of that person's experience.

So I think for you, I'm really curious to learn. How did you walk into that? Have you always just been naturally open-eyed, curious, or did you kind of come into that as part of your professional journey?

Oh, I've always been very open to learning whatever I can, I think. What's that Socrates quote? “I know that I know nothing.” Like, I know that I know nothing. I know I've always understood that I'm gonna know a lot of different things in my life. Like, through my dad, I'm gonna learn how cars work. Because my dad was always a mechanic and always messing with cars. I think he was always a very big influence on me because I always jokingly say that ‘My dad is a Swiss army man of a human being.’ Because I'm like, ‘how do I fix that?’ ‘Oh, easy.’ And then he'll know how to do it. I'm like, ‘How do you know that?’ But that's just how he's always been. If he didn't know something, he would figure it out and learn how to do it.

And I've always adopted that same trait from him. Like, okay, I don't know how to do it. So I'm either gonna ask somebody who does know so that way I can watch them and learn from them, or I'm gonna look it up myself, or I'm gonna do X, Y, and Z. I'm gonna figure it out somehow. I'm not just gonna sit here and accept that what I'm doing is it. And that's extended in so many different parts of my life. I've always just been very open to accepting that there may be one way of doing things.

And back as a practitioner, there was like a through line to how to do things. But then BCBA, there's that through line. But then when you meet that member, you're like, ‘But this is individualized.’ This is individualized. And if you have a lot of cases, you're going to learn. You're going to learn in a lot of different ways. You're going to learn that all these kids, all these members that we serve, they're all going to be different. And if you're not with it, if you're not flexible, and if you're not able to learn as you go, because I always felt that I had a good baseline. But you're always going to keep learning because either the kids are going to teach you something, the families are going to teach you something, the schools are going to teach you something, someone's going to teach you something, whether you want to learn it or not. Which is great, because I'm always open to that. I'm always open to learning.

When I would do my calls to insurance, do my authorization requests for my members, I would sit there sometimes talking to the peer reviewer for two hours. There's this one particular one that was specific to one of my clients, and I'll never forget him. I would just sit there, talk to him for two hours. We would talk about the peer review, but then we would just start talking about so much other stuff that he would just kind of teach me while I was going through it. Really good information. Not just telling me, like, ‘oh, this is what the membership covers.’ He was actually very nice. He would sit there with me and be like, ‘Hey, yeah, you could do this, this, and that, and come at this angle, or you go this route.’

So even in those moments where I was high anxiety because I was in a peer review, I was also given this ability where, like, oh, cool. I'm writing down notes, you're telling me things. I'm going to write this down, I'm going to keep it. And I would learn so much. So I've always found approaching life that way is very vital because at the end of the day, you may think you know everything, but you really don't. And I think with the way things are in the world nowadays, we're just learning as we're going because everything keeps changing, and we gotta keep rolling with everything.

But how cool is that to see that as an opportunity? Because now, as someone who is that gateway for families and members to access services, you now even have more tricks of the trade to help them secure those needed services for whatever it is that they are working through or trying to become part of their life journey. That's just so neat that you then see every professional interaction as that opportunity that then just continues to create more professional opportunities to serve even more people in even better ways.

Honestly. I mean, that's the only way to become a better clinician. If you think you know everything, you really don't know anything. Even my boss, my former boss, was so knowledgeable. It was very impressive  how much she knew about ABA and about all these little nuances that I probably would never have learned because she just had her finger on the pulse of everything.

But even she knew that she didn't know everything. Sometimes, funnily enough, when we started doing group act skills, my boss knew so much, but at the same time, she's like, ‘But you're more sociable than I am, so you should do the social skill stuff.’ And with the group kids. And I was like, what? But she knew what her deficit was. And it also didn't stop her from sitting in on that and seeing how I would run it. So that way she'd be like, ‘Okay, now I want to kind of modify that and make it my own.’

So even someone who I looked up to and thought they knew everything, she will look at me, she's like, ‘No, there are things that you could teach me too, just like we're teaching each other.’ And I think that's a beautiful relationship right there. It's like, ‘hey, I admire you for all the things you do and you see the things in me that you may, you may have deficit and we could teach each other,’ and I think that's honestly one of the best ways to live your life is to just always know that there are people out there that could teach you so many different things that you may not even know about.

Well, thank you for engaging in your profession in such an eyes-wide-open way. I think that makes it so much more possible to have a breadth of things that we can consider when we are trying to figure out what does this family need, what does this student need, how can we make those connections? You'll have a much wider understanding of what's possible, but then, like everything that you're doing, to know that that's what's happening inside of the systems that so often feel like it's so intangible and away from or outside of anything that we can directly influence. It's so nice to hear that there are people like you in the middle of all of those systems also trying to make sense of the needs of individuals on behalf of those families, not just right now, but for long into their lives ahead.

So thank you so much for sharing all of your expertise and kind of how you're navigating securing needed services for our students in bigger systems that are well beyond even where education can reach. So thank you so much.

Yeah, absolutely. It's my pleasure. Our whole goal is to serve and make sure that we're helping our members get everything they need in order to be successful in life. And I will gladly do that every single day until I die.

Well, thank you.

Yeah, of course.