Treatment of Elopement: Safety Tips and Considerations in Programming

Mindy Scheithauer, PhD, BCBA-D is an Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine and a Psychologist and Behavior Analyst in the Complex Behavior Department at the Marcus Autism Center. Dr. Scheithauer is an established researcher, focused on developing novel extensions to function-based assessments and treatments using both single-case and clinical-trial research designs. She recently completed a grant from Autism Speaks focused on evaluating a manualized intervention for the assessment and treatment of elopement, which was the largest study to-date analyzing treatments for this prevalent concern. She has presented on the assessment and treatment of elopement, as well as other forms of complex behavior, at several national and international conferences and she has numerous publications on this topic in top peer-reviewed journals in the field. She also acts as an editor for the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities.  Clinically, she manages programs that use treatments based in applied behavior analysis to target behaviors such as aggression, self-injury, and elopement in youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with a heavy emphasis on parent-training.