Behavioral Support Specialist (BSS) Job Description

A BSS provides specialized interventions that assist a participant to increase adaptive behaviors to replace or modify challenging behaviors of a disruptive or destructive nature that prevent or interfere with the participant’s inclusion in home and family life or community life. The BSS promotes consistent implementation of the Behavioral Support Plan (BSP) and Crisis Intervention Plan (CIP) across environments and across people with regular contact with the participant, such as family, friends, neighbors and other providers. Consistency is essential to skill development and reduction of problematic behavior. BSS includes both the development of an initial BSP and ongoing behavioral supports.

Initial BSP Development includes the following activities carried out by the qualified Behavioral Specialist:

• Conducts a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) of behavior and its causes, and an analysis of assessment findings of the behavior(s) to be targeted so that an appropriate BSP may be designed;
• Develops an individualized, comprehensive BSP—a set of interventions to be used by people coming into contact with the participant to increase and improve the participant’s adaptive behaviors—within 60 days of the start date of the BSS.
• Develops a CIP that will identify how crisis intervention support will be available to the participant, how the Supports Coordinator (SC) and other appropriate waiver service providers will be kept informed of the precursors of the participant’s challenging behavior, and the procedures/interventions that are most effective to deescalate the challenging behaviors.
• Enters the BSP and the CIP into HCSIS.
• Upon completion of plan development, meets with the participant, family members, SC, other providers, and employers to explain the BSP and the CIP to ensure all parties understand the plans.
• The BSP justifies necessary levels of BSS. ODP reviews the amount of direct and consultative service requested before authorization to ensure it is appropriate given the needs identified.

Ongoing Support can occur both before and after the completion of the BSP. If the participant needs behavioral support before the BSP and CIP are developed, the SC may submit a request to ODP for ongoing support to be provided during plan development. This service may be furnished in a participant’s home and at other community locations.

• Direct supports include:
• Support of and consultation with the participant to help them understand the purpose, objectives, methods, and documentation of the BSP, evaluate the effectiveness of the BSP and review recommended revisions;
• Crisis intervention supports provided directly to the participant in response to a behavioral episode that manifests with acute symptoms of sufficient severity such that a prudent layperson, could reasonably expect that the absence of immediate intervention will result in placing the participant and/or the persons around the participant in serious jeopardy including imminent risk of institutionalization or place the participant at imminent risk of incarceration or result in the imminent damage to valuable property by the participant.
• Consultative supports include:
• Support of family members, friends, waiver providers, other support providers, and employers to help them understand the purpose, objectives, methods of implementation, and how progress of the BSP is collected and documented and to understand any revisions that have been made to the plan which have previously been agreed upon with the participant;
• Monitoring and analyzing data collected during the BSP implementation based on the goals of the BSP;
• If necessary, modification of the BSP or the CIP, possibly including a new FBA, based on data analysis of the plans’ implementation; and
• Crisis intervention supports provided to informal or formal caregivers in response to a behavioral episode that manifests with acute symptoms of sufficient severity such that a prudent layperson, could reasonably expect that the absence of immediate intervention will result in placing the participant and/or the persons around the participant in serious jeopardy including imminent risk of institutionalization or place the participant at imminent risk of incarceration or result in the imminent damage to valuable property by the participant.

The Behavioral Specialist must be available for crisis intervention support 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. The Behavioral Specialist on call for crisis response and the SC must have access to the participant’s CIP. The SC is responsible for ensuring that the participant’s BSP and CIP are consistent with the participant’s ISP and will reconvene the planning team if there are any discrepancies. When a BSP or CIP is revised, the Behavioral Specialist must update the BSP and CIP in HCSIS and notify the participant and representative, if applicable, the SC, and all providers responsible for implementing the plan of the changes that were made to the BSP or CIP. Travel time may not be billed by the provider as a discrete unit of this service.

Requirements:

Master’s Degree or higher in Psychology, Special Education, Counseling, Social Work, Education, Applied Behavior Analysis or Gerontology, OR PA Behavior Specialist License, OR Bachelor’s Degree and work under the supervision of a professional who has a Master’s Degree in Psychology, Special Education, Counseling, Social Work, Education, Applied Behavior Analysis or Gerontology, or who is a licensed psychiatrist, psychologist, professional counselor, social worker (master's level or higher) or who has a Pennsylvania Behavior Specialist License.

Copy of master’s degree if it indicates the field of study. If diploma does not indicate field of study, official or unofficial transcripts indicating major and coursework should be provided OR copy of a Pennsylvania Behavior Specialist License OR copy of bachelor’s degree if it indicates field of study. If diploma does not indicate field of study, official or unofficial transcripts indicating major, coursework, and date of graduation should be provided along with Organizational Chart to show that the individual is supervised by an individual with a Master's degree or someone who is a licensed psychiatrist, psychologist, professional counselor, social worker or who has a PA Behavior Specialist license