Organizational Responsiveness to the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Mixed Methods Social Validity Assessment of Human Services Care Providers.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic posed many challenges to human services organizations serving persons with pre-existing conditions and health concerns. Study objectives were to assess organizational responsiveness to the pandemic through training, safety, and risk mitigation initiatives at community-based group homes for adults with intellectual disability (ID) and acquired brain injury (ABI).

Method: This was a two-phase mixed methods study with human services care providers.

Shaping approach responses as intervention for specific phobia in a child with autism.

We evaluated contact desensitization (reinforcing approach responses) as intervention for specific phobia with a child diagnosed with autism. During hospital-based intervention, the boy was able to encounter previously avoided stimuli. Parental report suggested that results were maintained postdischarge.

Achieving human service outcomes through competency-based training: a guide for managers.

During the past three decades, empirically supported strategies have been demonstrated for the training of competencies--highly specific skills and behaviors that are needed to complete a critical job task. The present article reviews several examples of competency-based training in human service programs and provides guidelines for the implementation of competency-based training by managers. Four methods for delineating a competency model are described, with recommendations for using them in combination.