Behavior Management Funding Guidelines

Regional Center provides a continuum of services to address behavioral concerns for clients and families and recognizes that early intervention may sometimes prevent more serious problems from developing. To provide this continuum, Lanterman Regional Center has developed a tiered intervention system to meet a wide variety of behavioral concerns.

Regional Center places a high priority on parent training in order to maximize the family's ability to support appropriate behavior, and to increase the likelihood that learned behaviors will be facilitated across natural environments and over time.

Behavior management services may be explored and funded for families in the following priority order:

1. Community-based classes, groups, and trainings in parenting, and basic behavioral techniques (available through community colleges, public schools, and adult education). These services are typically available to the community at low cost, and can be funded through private insurance or private pay.
   
2. Behavior Management and Parenting Support Network: Group support and parent-training presentations to help parents support each other and share strategies.
   
3. Group Format: Lanterman Regional Center offers periodic group parent training to meet general basic information needs. Group services are typically funded for a series of sessions as determined by the group meeting schedule and format. The group format can be provided in conjunction with the Behavior Management and Parenting Support Network sessions.
   
4. Individual Format: Behaviors that are more extreme due to their frequency, severity, or intensity, those that endanger a client's home/work/day program placement, or present a danger to the client or others may be referred to an appropriate service provider for assessment and intervention on an individual basis. Unless such service is to assist staff in level two or three homes, such interventions will be approved only by exception to policy. When individual intervention is the chosen modality, a finding must be made that the parent, residential careprovider, or day program provider is motivated to learn these skills, and capable of carrying out the behavior intervention plan.

Services provided via the individual format are typically funded for 36 hours over a three-month intervention period. Requests for additional services are an exception to policy and will be considered with respect to documented progress on specified objectives, and will necessitate the successful and continued participation of the parent and/or caregiver. The Regional Center consulting psychologist will review all requests for service as well as progress reports at three-month intervals to determine that the program is effective and continuation is necessary to achieve the goals and objectives as delineated in the IPP.

Each request for individual purchased behavior management service will be forwarded to the Regional Center psychologist who will review it and make a recommendation with respect to the appropriate behavioral intervention, or other treatment modalities such as counseling, and sex education. Typically, it is expected that parents will have completed group intervention classes prior to consideration for individual format.

ADOPTED BY BOARD OF DIRECTORS: DECEMBER, 1996