Dr. Merrill Winston

President, Winston Behavior Solutions

Presenting for a second time, Dr. Merrill Winston. Dr. Winston has worked in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis for over 35 years. He has worked in group homes, private homes, and secured facilities. He has conducted crisis management training and has given presentations for audiences both nationally and internationally and is a popular speaker at conferences.

SESSION 2023

MENTAL ILLNESS: IT ISN'T WHATCHA GOT, IT'S WHATCHA DO.

October 20, 2023 - 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

This presentation examines the assumptions made by the DSM-V revised about mental illness and then takes a behavioural perspective on the issue. There are numerous assumptions about the nature and etiology of mental illness, and most of these assumptions, in one form or another, end up blaming the brain on the problems we see. In a manner of speaking, the brain is responsible for what we see but only in as much as it is involved in all our behaviour. Regardless of differences in the brain that may or may not be causal in nature, mental health diagnoses are absolutely, positively NOT made on the basis of structural or neurochemical abnormalities. They are in fact based on behaviour or lack thereof. In fact, the popular trend now is self-diagnosis. So now we have diagnoses that are almost entirely based on the verbal behaviour of the person with the alleged disorder. Even when diagnoses are rendered formally, with checklists and questionnaires and perhaps even direct observation and interaction with the individual, there is still no structural or neurochemical marker used to make a decision. This presentation will cover problems and pitfalls in diagnosis and then cover the important variables to attend to when we encounter an individual with any given diagnosis.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Participants will be able to describe the difference between having a mental health diagnosis and having kidney stones 

2. Participants will be able to describe the differences between the measurement used in determining a mental illness category and the measurement used to determine whether or not someone has high blood pressure

3. Participants will be able to correctly restate the following: "He hallucinates because he has schizophrenia."

4. Participants will be able to describe how all clinicians make mental health diagnoses (i.e., what controls their verbal behaviour of rendering one diagnosis over another).

5. Participants will be able to break down mental health diagnoses into their observable behavioural components

1.5 BACB Learning CEUs

SPEAKER PREVIEW

SESSION 2022

WHY MOST BEHAVIOUR PLANS SUCK (OH BUT NOT YOURS I'M SURE YOURS IS GREAT).

October 21, 2022 - 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Although yours may not truly suck, it possibly could do with some improvements…As the old saying goes, there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, and the same is true of behavior plans. From initial assessment and writing, to staff training and revisions, there are numerous wrong turns where your well laid (behavior) plan can easily meet an untimely end in the back of a filing cabinet where it won’t see the light of day again until it’s survey time. As Dr. Ogden Lindsley used to say, let’s not spend our time “playing with pencils” writing plans that won’t ultimately improve lives. Topics not only include how to improve the standard parts of a plan, but an in-depth look at how all the gears must mesh to produce quick and lasting behavior change.

1.5 BACB Learning CEUs

Session Sponsor

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SPEAKER PREVIEW