Quebec ABA – 2025 Chapter Update
By Kirsty Robertson
The 2024 year brought on some exciting changes! Following the annual general meeting, which took place on April 21, 2024, the board acquired a few new board members (Yulia Tkachenko, student representative and Aurélie Fock, regular member representative). The board of directors would like to highlight the hard work and dedication that previous board members have contributed.
The QcABA hosted its 13th annual conference on September 20th, 2024. which was offered online. The total number of attendees was 63 people. This was the second conference that we hosted where we saw participation from other countries such as the United States as well as France.
The conference included several speakers, with our keynote speaker being Dr. Paul Gavoni who presented on The Behavior Science of Leadership: Achieving Behavioral Excellence in Organizations. Our next speaker was Dr. Adithyan Rajaraman who spoke about Advocating for Trauma-informed Care and Incorporating it into Behavioral Services for Individuals Who Exhibit Dangerous Behavior. Next, we had Isabelle Cowan, MASP, L.Psych, BCBA, Directrice Régionale, Services Thérapeutiques VIVA and Danielle Pelletier, MOA, Orthophoniste, BCBA, PDG, Services Thérapeutiques VIVA- Soins sensibles aux traumatismes par l’application du Traitement Basé sur les Compétences followed by Geneviève Roy-Wsiaki, PhD, BCBA-D- Rendre l’ABA plus accessible, mais pour qui et pourquoi? Une évaluation des perceptions de l’ABA en milieux francophones au Canada. These two presentations were entirely in French in order to appeal to our French speaking members. Our final speaker was Dr. Rachel Schwartz, PhD, BCBA-D who presented on sexuality and autism.
Internally, QcABA continues to try to improve its functioning as a non-profit organization. Our main objective at the moment is to increase membership, specifically members from the French-speaking community. Our organization has mostly attracted English speaking members; therefore, we have decided to create objectives for the organization based on increasing services and information in French. We have also updated our strategic plan as well as created a business plan in order to define and measure our organization’s goals. One of the means in which we are aiming to increase our membership and attendance at events is by updating our website to include a more comprehensive and user-friendly platform that will be accessible in both languages.
The number of certified individuals in the province continues to grow steadily. 2007 was the first year that any certified behaviour analysts appeared in Quebec (two BCBAs and one BCaBA), and at the time of this writing (February 2025) the province is now home to 74 certificants. Although these numbers may seem modest to our counterparts in the US, or even from BC or Ontario, it is important to remember the barriers that face our professionals that are unique to our conditions. Specifically, in addition to being a primarily Francophone province, there are no third parties (e.g. government or insurance companies) that pay for services by certified individuals, nor any local educational institutions that offer the course content. In other words, becoming a certified professional in Quebec is an endeavour that is both difficult to obtain and carries little monetary incentive for those who decide to do so. QcABA is grateful that despite these barriers, our numbers continue to grow and recognition of board certification is on the rise. Our board is committed to offering CEUs for our regular events such as the conference and journal clubs at little or no cost in order to support our behaviour analysts, just as they have supported us over the years.
In 2023, the QcABA began to participate in Canadian Chapters meetings, which is a quarterly meeting for Canadian provinces who are ABAI affiliate chapters. These meetings were created with the intention of discussing and sharing what is happening within each Canadian chapter as well as to support one another as a Canadian organization. These meetings have provided members of the board with an opportunity to partake in discussions that are most relevant to ABA in Canada.
Thank you ABAI for your continued interest and support of our chapter over the years.
Should you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me at the email or phone number below.
Regards,
Kirsty Robertson., BCBA
QcABA President
Marisa Scaglione, BCBA
QcABA Vice-President
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