How behavioural therapy can progress stalled casework

By Salvatore Cesare, Service Development Manager

The through-put dilemma

Moving cases forward to meet care planning objectives is essential to good social work practice.

Serious Case Reviews and internal practice analysis suggest that frontline team managers and social workers often work in isolation under the increasing burden of unmanageable caseloads and external scrutiny.

This often results in poor client outcomes, case drift, and the absence of essential through-put processes. This creates a ‘knock-on’ effect with new cases piling on top of old, placing further stress on social workers’ ability to meet the needs of children and families in their care.

The benefits of behavioural intervention

Most social work interventions are based on the notion of enhancing insight as a pathway to facilitating change.

However, when children and parents present with limited insight, most social workers would agree that behavioural therapy is uniquely suited to solve these embedded behavioural obstacles.

Unfortunately, affordable, evidence-based behavioural interventions are rarely available to statutory social work practitioners in Early Intervention, Children in Need, Children with Disabilities, Child Protection, and Children in Care service areas.

Applied behavioural analysis: a solution to stalled case progression

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) was originally utilised in the treatment of individuals with autism, intellectual disability, and learning disability, however, it has many applications across different service areas. As ABA is not insight-based, it is likely to be more effective than social work interventions that are dependent on improving the service user’s understanding or insights into their own behaviour.

Beam ABA Services provides a unique, affordable and evidence-based behavioural treatment service for children and their parents or carers. Beam ABA is currently working with forward-thinking local authorities throughout Greater London and with proven rates of success (see diagrams below).

To date, Beam ABA has been exclusively working with Children with Disabilities services, but we are now expanding our services to treat families involved with Early Intervention, Children in Need, Child Protection, and Children in Care services, offering child-focused, parent-focused, and carer-focused behavioural treatment services.

Beam ABA can provide effective ABA services to children who fall short of diagnostic thresholds and are not eligible for programmes like Early Bird, Portage, and CAMHS.

Working in the family home, in schools, or in the community, our service is available days, evenings, and weekends. Key to the success of any programme is consistency and collaboration – we provide skilled and trained staff who focus is on socially significant outcomes achieved across location, across time and across people, including external stakeholders, schools and families. We are also developing an intensive in-home ABA driven parenting programme.

If you’d like further information, please call 020 8349 8024 or email contact@beamaba.com

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Salvatore Cesare holds a master’s degree in social welfare with a strong clinical background as a seasoned clinician, program director, and clinical manager/supervisor with over fifteen years of field-tested expertise in mental health, substance misuse, traumatic brain injury, geriatrics, adolescent/family counselling, domestic violence, and homeless delivery systems. He currently works for Beam ABA services as a Service Development Manager.