AAIDD, Leadership in IDD

 

Perspectives Commentary from the field    Nurses, Parents with IDD, and Mandated Reporting of Child Maltreatment   Lauren Clark, RN, PhD, FAAN Shapiro Family Endowed Chair in Developmental Disabilities Studies UCLA School of Nursing   Mothers with IDD may feel afraid that child protective services will analyze how they parent and then take their children away. Their worries are justified. Without evidence of injury or other abuse, mandated reporters tend to escalate concerns about parents with IDD to child protective services based on their own assumptions about what makes a ‘good enough’ parent.   I’m a nurse and I teach nursing students. Nurses can have biases. They are taught that high-tech health care can ‘fix’ people. Nursing students seldom have clinical experiences with adults with IDD. They may graduate with a limited understanding of disability and reproductive justice. Those biases lead to inaccurate assessments of child maltreatment in families with a parent with IDD.   It’s time to fix lapses in IDD competence among nurses. Nursing education can include how to respect autonomy, support decision-making, and provide person- and family-centered care across the lifespan. Including nurses with disabilities in the workforce will narrow the gap between the nurses and parents with a disability. Collaborating with parents with IDD to develop and teach parent support programs will involve those most affected by oversurveillance in preventing child maltreatment. Nurses can become mandated supporters, not just mandated reporters.     Notables  Recent awards, accolades, appointments, and other honors.   Katie Arnold, PhD, FAAIDD Appointed New Executive Director of Our Place of New Trier Township Our Place of New Trier Township (“Our Place”) has appointed Dr. Katie Arnold, a widely respected leader and expert in the field of disability services and programs, as its new Executive Director.    Tony Anderson's Article, "What Policy Advocates Do" Published in The University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration Frontline Initiative.  Tony Anderson's article focuses on the importance of ensuring all voices from the IDD community are heard and impact policy decisions and policy development.     Notables  Recent awards, accolades, appointments, and other honors Perspectives Commentary from the field    AAIDD is looking to feature notables and perspective pieces from our members in the field! Send us your commentary to be featured in a future Leadership in IDD Newsletter.     Produced by AAIDD, this monthly digest features the recent (first made available within last 3 months) and emergent (will be available within the next 4-6 weeks) work of AAIDD members only. Journal articles, while important, are not featured in this publication.    View the archive of the Leadership in IDD newsletter here.     Not yet a member? Join AAIDD online!     Click here to unsubscribe. Message sent by AAIDD, membership@aaidd.org American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities | 8403 Colesville Road | Suite 900 | Silver Spring, MD 20910