CHange is the only constant in our lives and our careers and those who do not embrace change will find themselves in a place of irrelevancy. COnferences like this raise our awareness of the challenges facing us and as we return home we will come across people and organisations so unwilling to change, why do people face new challenges with old solutions...its easier...cognitive dissonance and facing change is uncomfortable. Adapting to new realities is hard and the immediate need to deal with being overwhelmed makes it hard to positive change which takes time and energy and the frontline. Positive change to race to the future needs to take a longer view than the crisis of the days. Thoughtful consideration about needs to be maintained and nurtured what needs to be changed and what needs to be discarded. Those of us who do not invest in reflections and consideration just perpetuate systems and services that maintain the status quo and the continued poor implementation of services and societies that meet needs and better solutions that cope with an ever changing context. We need to ask...thinking about the future is not to predict it but to raise peoples hope - Freeman Dyson.... there are too many people in need that our voices cannot be ignored we need to ensure society realises that we need to create opportunities for people living with disability to contribute as citizens in our society. Core values evolve as understanding evolves and so our values change as we gain a more enlightened understanding about the lives of people living with disability.
aaidd has changed its values in 1903/4 it was about safety and happiness and by 1972 Perske talked about risk, dignity to learn and perhaps even be hurt to evolve into being a citizen. People living with disability are full fledged citizens with a right to a quality and full life...its about belonging to a community - well worth the risk....we need to keep reminding ourselves of the values that we advocate for to manage those who want to maintain the status quo.
Tagxedo put text about your evolving values and your professional philosophy and see what happens...This is a note from Caroline
aaidd in 1913 had a meeting and the text was put into tagxedo and the key words were institution, state, mental, school, feeble, dr,.... no we put in Perske's address of 1972 and mental retardation while the language was not people first as the power of other words was evident...human, persons, attitude, normal, live, experiences, risks, relationships, dignity, allowed, worker and work.... the point is that the values underlying our work are different. What values underly our work today...what is the philosophy of our age and putting in the words published by past presidents on the aaidd website into tagxedo... these words were most used....community, work, lives, services, support, association, and people and persons were the biggest words and help us to understand the philosophy of our age. We need to catch the future by watching the language we use and that used by the media. Community services need to be updated and supported to expand to develop and provide for greater diversity.
Reading between the lines here is my summary...my point is that each of us must think about what we are about or we will drift....it is about transforming the context, the environment and how the person living with disability can and want to interact with their world. People living with disability want relationships with others, they want meaningful ways to spend their time, they want choices so their lives are unique and maybe disability specific and mainly generic services. They want to be empowered to have enviable lives as stated by Ann Turnbull. Focus professional efforts on supports that bridge the gap between a persons gifts and the demands on the activities and environments. The general population need to experience the richness that people living with disability can bring to their community.....
Are where there yet? We have worked on the journey but we have still not arrived....we should ask ourselves on a regular basis are we there yet? THere will aways be new ways and frontiers on the horizon...are we moving forward....are we racing to catch the future......
As we take our next steps we will take less wrong terms if we promote knowledge...that is peer reviewed and based on evidence, it is likely to be better than relying on people's impressions. Scientific knowledge and research rigour and involves systematic empiricism is not without fault but can be more reliable than lots of hits on the internet....Dr Walter Fernald ...said people with a disability were a menace....In 1919 he reported that his life's work was discredited and he stopped his eugenics work and became an advocate for progressive movement and legislation around supporting people living with disability..he slandered people living with disability but in his research (600+) around people with ID discharged from an institution... he found that people living with disability were doing well and contributing to the community.
We need to catch the future through research....AJIDD and a new journal Inclusion and ejournal which is a journal that it is about being accessible to a wider audience.
Catching the future through mentoring....sustainability requires an unbroken chain of competence. That will mean identifying people and encouraging them to develop their own reputations. Robert Shalock....there is a joy that comes from mentoring...Val Bradley...A mentor is a trusted guide and helps us find our passion and achieve our goals.
Opposite of a mentor is a dementor that sucks the life soul from others...get too near a dementor it can feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself....aaidd can help you connect to mentors and be mentored...aaidd expecto patronum!!!
Catching the future through engagement....embracing diversity....it is diversity of disciplines, roles and countries for those looking for an inter-professional home outside your work place. Lets you dominant cells you cannot express in your everyday work. Professionals that need regular opportunities for renewal. and to be reminded that our work is connected to more than our work and research. It is a place to work globally and linked to iassid.
mnygreen@aaidd.org if you want to connect and contribute.
Carolines comment - great conference and joining aaidd as an international member was the best $50.00 I ever spent...access to online communities and journals and bookstore purchases....
Final comment
Dear past
Thanks for the lessons
Dear future
I am ready......
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