Presidential Address, 2016-Re-Membering the Gifts of Professional.

03Original abstract

Who are we as the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD)? How would you answer that? If we stopped right now and had table discussions on that question, there is no telling what would come up. You might say:You name it. We might have a broad consensus of who we are, or the description might be more like the classic metaphor of seven blind men trying to describe an elephant, with each of them feeling a different part of that magnificent creature.Last year, Susan Palmer addressed our roles in research, policy, and practice. Many of us would cite those three bastions as definitive of AAIDD mission, purpose, and identity. I often try to describe AAIDD as supporting a three-legged stool in each state: a developmental disability (DD) council; protection and advocacy; and one or more University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs), Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) programs, or research centers. At our best, research, policy, and practice—the three pillars of AAIDD—interact dynamically with one another in ways that help keep the whole enterprise, and our professional roles, balanced. At our worst, there is an uneasy relationship between the three, with advocates who identify primarily with one of those legs sometimes thinking and saying, “If only you two were more like me.”You would not want to stand on a two-legged stool. At our best, that relationship between research, policy, and practice is neither a hierarchy nor separate bastions, but a constant process of what we in the world of clinical pastoral education call an “action/reflection process.” We come to practice with what we know, partly shaped by research foundations and policies that impact our practice. That practice leads to the need for more research and more effective policies, which then can be tested out in practice. The three operating as one, but each distinct. (If I sound like a theologian trying to slip in a lesson on the workings of the Trinity, I assure you that I am not.)Some of you may know a similar process in Essential Lifestyle Planning, the 4+1 questions (Smull, 2011):However it is described, the process of critical reflection and research on policy and practice is fundamental to keeping a system of services and supports alive and growing. A process of self-evaluation, critique, and reflection with other peers (i.e., peer review), is a core part of what we understand “professional” to mean. We know and keep learning about what should be done, where and when it should happen, and how things best work. In his presidential address in Pittsburgh, Jim Thompson (Thompson, 2013) talked about three new professional imperatives that the social model of disability calls us to explore:Since his 2013 address, it is even clearer that the stories of disability are intimately tied up in the stories of diversity, and the wider cultural question of whether we are going to be a country and world that appreciates and gives thanks for diversity or one that is threatened by the very diversity that is at the heart of creation. Jim Thompson went on to define AAIDD's primary roles as furthering knowledge, mentoring, and promoting engagement (emphasis intentional).We have occasionally talked about why we do what we do. Bob Schalock (1998) explored some of those “whys” in his presidential address, entitled “A Personal Odyssey: The Story Behind the Story” (Schalock, 1998). I would submit that our attention to the why we do what we do is somewhat limited, far too often answered only with “that's what we are paid to do,” “where the funding is,” “it's what we are told to do,” and/or “that's the way we have always done it.” We are getting much better, I hope, at practicing what we preach in our person and family-centered values: We do it because this is what individuals and families both need and want or, as said more eloquently by Essential Lifestyle Planning (Smull et al., 2009), by listening deeply to what is “important to” someone as well as what is “important for” them. But there are other dimensions of the “why” that ask us to explore and speak from our motivation, values, and sense of call and vocation. Very few people have the space and invitation to do that kind of reflection, especially during work time, yet it is the kind of sharing and communication that speaks deeply and moves us under the surfaces of evidence-based practice to times for rethinking and rekindling our own “whys.” (Basmat Ahmed challenged us to that kind of reflection yesterday in the first plenary discussion on community building.)But even more striking in these processes of building professional capacity and effective services is that the question “Who are we as professionals?” is greeted by even shorter attention spans. Who are we as people in our various professional roles? In AAIDD, we may each have a professional identity, illustrated in the variety of disciplines represented in the Conference of Professional Interests, or in the topic or arena that is the focus of our individual work. In that question of identity lay the questions of why did you choose this particular profession, as well as who and what framed that choice and helped form and mold you to be the person and professional you now are. (Some of us might frame that in reverse and talk about how this or that profession choose me.) Many of us have a certification, degree, or title that says “this is who I am” or “who I am trying to be.” But ever since “professionals” arose out the guilds of the Middle Ages, the understanding of “professional” has increasingly evolved (or devolved) to mean the knowledge we have mastered and the skills we can demonstrate, with a corresponding reduction in focus on the processes of identity formation, mentoring, and apprenticeship that are still so crucial to our individual development.That evolution eventually led to an understanding that the meaning of “professional,” explicitly or implicitly, is one who is able to separate his or her values from his or her professional role. That result came, I think, from a continued focus on scientific objectivism, as well as a reaction against the evils of the misuse of professional position and power for proselytizing purposes of one kind or another. One consequence, however, was that the definition of “professional” was by and large captured by the medical model of disability.That model, in turn, was challenged by the evolving social models of disability with the inclusion of many more disciplines under the rubric of disability studies—disciplines like philosophy, art, English, history, theology, and others that have always spoken to, and reflected upon, the importance of meaning and values. 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I have the but the way of this is that the one moves from the more you or, the one to the we can be more when professional do I was a at both of the two that professional I would sometimes about the that this or that person had a relationship with in that that person The professional was one about of The question, however, is about the and of I to I was a at in one and and still when someone have with the people you I am not but I can of two primary you in other learning where the power is of us would be to the core our or had told us that not or with us we The of the I in a to by a in to you a to is not so “If you are it in the way of the to to someone with the of to someone what can we The and I have is from in which has and an for I still at people did not to be in did not mean to but a was a way of of what a the of and and an would in the of so many people we and and in the of those who for and with them in a professional to the two of community building and what would the for professional roles in an was that no what would do with one of the people by someone with the someone may have to for do not with them in at one a The should be people who do not have community and might be but I you people would that might help in with A of a to a community some with no other a do we as our the are people we may not for a but are people occasionally and sometimes from to time, and the relationship up where it community and are some of the ways to the of of the people we and our I want to be that I am not about the of the three-legged AAIDD stool. I the and are there for those who focus on policy and on research, and the Many of us between those three sometimes We have by policy in these by to the and of people with and developmental and families are at the The two of about and “If you are not at the you are on the both have to them. In many of us know that and families are the effective more so of and of time, we can help people that each person in that has own are, who are with people with and developmental as research not I would research because of with particular and that the is research, and policy practice one in of in the might these and of professional then our understanding of You know where the the practice of first to a and then to a of practice. The profession of was not an of and for the but it also as a and of the values and In a where between for and the profession of and is to or of I am not out to and of that I am not going to of the of our is no that this was not always the in the values were and in that the be on the other have with a professional that says we are to be If arena of a of values, it is because professional in this arena is with someone often on the social and one in which the power is always are times when there are questions of where our and which we are out those values is a of and of a and you I am the also of and I am of the we however, are the of and But the question in what ways can we be that we are to not our power and both of we have not always the a to community building and three in of as we are to That is not One might that there are of evidence-based practice in which listening deeply is not practice. We have we are policy advocates or in the of as as we like to and we are to to space for is to our own and new on who we are as people and I Palmer that one of the we listening deeply to another and is that we are of where that might call and how it might But both individuals with and developmental and families need to that a that far too often is by professional and of one kind or can we as as with as we are with and One is that with people is as as for A in in this is that our whole system of services is saying, to we can to we have to how to what we know so of others can capacity to help as We do that in and but do we do that in people in our three in of help answer the questions that are A especially in community is that to be a professional is to know what we know, so that we are to ask others and from them. in other I have to how to as the of as there is the that and the two by a and community in at two that of our and and that of One policy, and The other is art, and we need some new models of professional and that are not so much new as are in an or, in a of and was not as the of knowledge and skills in the evidence-based of the time, but as of and of and that and are going to to that you way that and where you need to know how it is that with and both and is by professional and are some of the ways we talk about those who have helped us in this kind of we not to those we have you for We are also to understand the of not to an but to a community of where we can and be and to thinking about you “Who and what and and come How do you and we If we do we to a system that has no how to and and then on we need to or the in our professional work and them part of us on the and of the people we and nor able to and name our I mean the of what we have in our work from the people with we and the for which we has this to At the of who we are. those to for what others have and to us someone is out in the ways of us do. Palmer (1998) some of this in the very title of his The to the of a about the of the and and be to on that sense of in building and to some the one has ever done that in a professional who at a I helped the for in in The was on building between and We to be one of the in I a of the who work with at speak in about the of and professional The up and am not a very so I a the and was one of those when you you were on You may have it his it has is I am his help to help to to help to to to to to to be keep his have an of to constant need for to to leads to own leads to to Centers a sense of in I am I am I am his is that is that is that is his is a that his his is in is with what it to be may be one way individuals and families may come to not so But we be much because us from our from us what we and practicing what we in of one of Bob first about pastoral of a of one to know are a we The reverse of that may be as know are a we it and have many for to AAIDD and for to this At our we are about knowledge out in practice. We also come to our not only to help and but also because there is part of of us that to be well You may not know that the for was about much more also and a as a the to that when went in and his it was should not have a and one of we want to be well when what we want is to be One is of the of this by too people with as with (Smull in the of people with and developmental and we are to know others Many have and helped us know we can do at well to as and even that or and by we can to the with we have have as much not you I have the of what it to be

Intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2016 · doi:10.1352/1934-9556-54.6.454