Individuals who face chronic distress and challenging behaviors may face a lifetime of reactive-based treatment in order to mitigate the most immediate crisis which may increase the likelihood of recidivism in said treatments. The application and outcomes of applied behavior analysis (ABA) is well documented with the autism spectrum population but very little has been shown outside of this group. This presentation will review how ABA principles are applied in an acute inpatient setting across varying populations. A framework is given to learners to identify the root cause of challenging behaviors that may aid in developing preventative strategies.