Hopebridge has revamped its internal board-certified behavior analysts (BCBA) career pathways and is opening its fellowship program to non-employees.
The Indianapolis-based autism therapy provider is hopeful this will improve its prospects of attracting and retaining practicing and prospective BCBAs. The new career pathways will also provide additional support for BCBAs at the clinic level. These initiatives are responsive to one of the top challenges facing the autism therapy industry: finding and retaining clinicians.
“We’ve always had this kind of innovation at Hopebridge: For nearly two decades, we’ve continued to invest in the clinical community and in expanding access to these types of therapies and services,” Jana Sarno, chief clinical officer of Hopebridge, told Autism Business News.
The new career pathways expand the number of assistant clinical directors and clinical directors. This initiative will open up over 40 positions across Hopebridge. The organization operates 122 clinics across 12 states. The clinical director roles will be focused on supporting BCBAs in their practice, providing tailored guidance that enables effective care and employee development.
Internal clinical training and support initiatives are key in autism therapy. BCBAs, who lead the care efforts for those with autism, are very likely to be young and new in the field. Autism therapy and the adoption of applied behavior analysis (ABA) are comparatively new within health care. As a result, 47% of BCBAs are aged 34 years or younger. Based on the latest data from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB), 56% of BCBA certifications were awarded in the last five years.
The Hopebridge Fellowship, which trains prospective BCBAs, will now be open to master’s-level students at all stages of their academic careers. Previously, the fellowship program was reserved for tenured Hopebridge registered behavior technicians (RBT). Hopebridge says its fellowship participants clear the certification process 20% higher than the national average, according to a news release from the company. The pass rate for first-time test takers and those retaking the test in 2023 was 56% and 23%, respectively.
Sarno said the company doesn’t require participants to pay or work for a certain time period at the company to participate in the fellowship.
Those Hopebridge shepherds through the BCBA certification process are retained at a higher rate than those the company hires outside of the process, the release states.
Hopebridge is also introducing the fieldwork RBT role. In this role, fellowship members will work in centers to accumulate the necessary clinical hours to sit for the BCBA exam. These candidates, Sarno said, are interested in or have started their fieldwork as part of the BCBA certification process. It will allow RBTs access to free fieldwork hours, expert clinical mentorship, collaborative study groups and comprehensive support during exam preparation.
“It’s about taking the information that’s learned in a graduate training program and applying it to acquire those fieldwork hours,” Sarno said.
The autism therapy industry is struggling to recruit the appropriate leaders and mentors to support the BCBA workforce. In sum, there simply aren’t enough tenured clinicians in the field. This leads organizations to consider a number of strategies to cope with the challenge.
The importance of these types of efforts is put into perspective when considering demand for BCBAs. Job postings calling for BCBAs increased 9.2 times in 2023 compared to 2017.
