procedures for staff analysis

An Analysis of Various Training Procedures for Staff Who Support Adults with Developmental Disabilities

William BellPsy492

Joshua TaylorDue: 04/17/11

The purpose of the review was to identify

various training methods and procedures

that could maximize efficiency and minimize cost and time requirements.

• Staff training and development are an essential part of any agency who supports individuals with developmental disabilities. • The success of services provided

to these individuals is dependent on the quality of training the direct care staff receives.

As vital as staff training is, the costs and time required to properly train direct care staff can drain the

resources of an organization. Therefore, it is imperative that organizations be as

efficient as possible by training their staff using imperially validated methods.

California Regional Centers are agencies who assist in finding and funding appropriate services for families with developmentally

disabled relatives. These services include:

HousingBehavior Therapy

Vocational Training

In recent years, the State of California was forced to undergo a budget overhaul that included $230 million dollars being cut from the 40 Regional Center offices

located throughout the state.

Unfortunately, these cuts were passed along to independently contracted agencies who serve the Regional Center clientele. The ramifications of such fiscal remodeling have lead to these agencies looking for more efficient ways to provide and maintain their services

• Limited funding does not allow service delivery agencies to be able to afford the qualified personnel that have the necessary skills to work with developmentally disabled clients.

• Not only are the benefits of trained staff apparent in every work place, but, they prove to be quite substantial (Mline, Keegan, and Westerman, 2000).

• The human service field is presented with many challenges related to staff motivation and turnover due to there being infrequent opportunities for natural reinforcement (Sulzer-Azarof et al.). Due to the stressful demands and unique work environment, turnover and burnout are common issues for staff in the human services field.

• With the already increasing stressors that this field places on direct care staff, it is important to ensure they are competent in all areas of their job. Staff training strategies, such as the pyramidal training model, rely on highly trained staff to instruct those beneath them in their job duties (Page, et al. 1982).

• There are various items of concern that managers and employers

need to be aware of before they develop initial training procedures. Amongst other things, cost, time efficiency, and effectiveness of the staff training should be of the utmost concern.

Training Methodologies

Various trainings include: Pyramidal training

Peer training Video feedback Verbal feedback

Written instructions

• Ideally, the most capable and qualified personnel to implement these programs would be those who have been educated and have received certification in behavior analysis (BCBA).

• Within the human services field, behavior analysis is not only routinely accepted and expected for developmental disabilities, it is in essence mandated (Reid, 1991).

• The limited funding available to hire such personnel has left agencies to hire staff who are not formally educated in applied behavior analysis with little or no experience at all in the field, which requires extensive training upon hiring.

Pyramidal training Pyramidal training is a model in which training is provided to a sub-group of staff, which is then required to pass the knowledge they have acquired to newer staff members (Page, et al. 1982). This method tends to be very practical to business organizations as staff is typically trained during service hours and during regular job-duties. For clients, this method is also convenient as they are still receiving ample supervision. Supervisors are frequently assigned as trainers or staff members have successfully worked the position for quite a while. This ensures that the trainers are more experienced, educated, and knowledgeable of client needs and resources. Supervisors are not typically responsible for direct care of clients on a regular basis, and therefore can be trained completely and thoroughly during business hours.

Written or Scripted Verbal Instruction

Written instruction included any form of media that displayed the written instruction to the staff on how to perform the responsibilities of their position.

This method of training is time and cost effective due to the manner in which the written feedback can be created and delivered to staff quickly and creates little to no disruption of the daily tasks assigned to the staff members. The ability to reach a large number of staff members in an extremely short amount of time also makes this very practical.

Workshops or Classes:

Workshops or classes included training sessions that involved a larger number of the staff to be trained with at least one supervisor or instructor providing verbal instruction on accurate delivery or client services.

Peer Training:

Peer training can be extremely beneficial for small organizations when one considers the possibilities this form of training can take on. Supervisory staff would not be necessary and due to higher salary rates, along with regularly non-revenue generating status, this pens up cost saving opportunities.

This method could be applied to large amounts of new staff members simultaneously without compromising individual feedback.

Many job responsibilities of human service positions are not skilled in nature. For example, cleaning, driving, or location of safety materials are tasks that are simple enough to warrant limited instruction and could depend mainly on observation of staff familiar with the procedures.

Operant Methods:

Operant principles have been a cornerstone of behavior analysis since its beginning. This method has the potential to produce consistent and maintained staff behavior, and may be completed in a relatively short amount of training time.

Conclusion

Though limited, procedures for training staff within the regular constraints of human service settings are available and effective. The pyramidal training model is a useful structure to implementing training programs. Combined with the low cost and ease of feedback, this model shows that it can be used over a wide variety of human service applications.

The methods and models reviewed provide an outline of potential research within these settings. Some areas of future research could involve training large amounts of supervisors simultaneously and evaluating the performance of staff members assigned to them. Operant procedures could be investigated, again using larger groups. Peer training could be investigated as a training method for different aspects of job-responsibilities or performed on a module type.

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