by Phillip Brooks, Registered Behavior Technician
As I meet more and more people in my work life there seem to be recurring themes. It does not matter the profession, whether it be construction workers, or nurses, I have heard these topics discussed daily. Money, supervisors, and life are topics that can be discussed around the water cooler.
However, some of the employees in my field, working as behavior technicians, aren’t afforded that same luxury. We work with children in sometimes very isolated settings. In these settings, behavior techs can deal with anything from being yelled at to being punched. It is easy to see how burnout can occur with the employees in this field. One of the ways to cope with burn out is having someone to talk to about work, life and other topics that come to mind.
Connections Behavior Planning and Intervention has not only realized this problem, but found BT’s, working with BCBAs, to come up with a solution. The solution is a peer mentoring program. This is program where behavior technicians who have experience in the field can meet someone new and share those experiences. Peer being the word heavily stressed here – we come not be teach, but more to listen and share. We don’t force this on new hires, but we do give the option as way to show that we understand this is a tough job.
Being a behavior technicians is challenging. It challenges us mentally and sometimes physically, too. We understand that starting it can be stressful. At Connections Behavior Planning and Intervention, we hope that having someone to talk to will help ease the stress.
