“Using Technology to Support Developmental Disabilities”

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 1 in 6 newborn children will be diagnosed with a developmental disability (such as autism), making such conditions more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is the main treatment methodology recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the US Surgeon General, and the US National Institutes of Mental Health for treating individuals with developmental disabilities such as autism. However, the highly limited availability of credentialed ABA providers limits its potential benefit for the hundreds of millions of individuals globally with such disorders. Limited public support services, including in the education and healthcare systems, further amplify this challenge.

“Rethink offers the industry-leading practice management platform for behavioral health providers specializing in individuals with autism and related disorders.”

Rethink was founded with a mission to address the significant challenge of how to effectively and affordably meet the treatment needs of this enormous and growing population worldwide with a significant shortage of trained professionals. The Company determined that the only way to deliver clinical best practice treatment in a scalable way was to leverage technology to train whoever cared for the individual with the developmental disability to deliver the treatment. This would impact all the entities revolving around this population's care, including the school, the home, and the healthcare system. Rethink found extensive research on the effectiveness of video modeling for training in fields such as medicine and the military and decided to combine this proven method of instruction with the proven and medically-recommended ABA treatment methodology, creating an online training and support system for individuals with a developmental disability and their caregivers worldwide.

With a significant shortage of trained professionals (there is only approximately 30,000 Board Certified Behavioral Therapists globally) available to meet the needs of a growing population with a developmental disability (approximately 450 million individuals birth-21 globally), Rethink set out to create a scalable solution that would make clinical best practice treatment tools and supports available to the individual and their caregiver(s) no matter where they are located. Providing research-based teaching strategies grounded in the principles of ABA, the award-winning Rethink program includes a comprehensive online individualized treatment program with over 1,500 video-based demonstrations - developed by internationally-recognized experts in the field - to train caregivers, parents, professional and paraprofessional staff how to manage problem behaviors as well as teach an individual with a developmental disability critical skills.

Rethink offers the industry-leading practice management platform for behavioral health providers specializing in individuals with autism and related disorders. One of the most critical needs in employee benefits is supporting employees caring for children with a developmental disability such as autism or ADHD. Costco Wholesale decided to be proactive and offer unique supports such as the Rethink program to these employees, who make up nearly 20% of the workforce. As Donna Sexton, the Director of Employee Benefits at Costco, notes, “I can't think of any benefits we've ever added to our suite that got so much attention and so many letters to our president, thanking him for bringing Rethink on, and what a difference it was going to make in their lives.”

Besides, Program Specialists can also utilize Rethink as a form of job-embedded professional development and augment coaching caregivers and other support staff. Rethink also offers a range of technology-enabled remote service options, ranging from short-term web-based consultations with Rethink’s Board-certified behavioral therapists to ongoing program development initiatives supported by an in-house team of clinicians. Alongside, Rethink’s practice management offering allows for the tracking of service authorizations and the cost of treatment as it relates to clinical outcomes. Rethink serves individuals at all levels of development and ages, ranging from diagnosis through early adulthood.

Rethink is in the process of expanding their core product offering beyond treatment tools and supports for dependents with a developmental disability and their caregivers to adults with a developmental disability, including supporting those individuals with a Neurodiverse condition in the workplace. IE