Letter
from the President
July 2004
What an exciting time this is to be the President of AAMR!
Change is in the air and now is the time for action and progress
toward the goals we share with our colleagues and partners
in the field of intellectual disabilities. If you are reading
this as a member of AAMR, please know that I will do everything
in my power this year to make you proud of your Association.
This is your Association and I want to hear from you, work
with you, provide you with the services and products you need,
and involve you in the important work we are doing to achieve
our goals. If you are not a member yet, why not join us and
become part of the action? I truly believe that every professional
involved with intellectual disability should be a member of
AAMR because we can accomplish so much more when we are all
working together.
AAMR strives to be the principal source for reliable and useful
information that professionals can use to enhance the quality
of life for persons with intellectual disabilities. We do this
by publishing two first-rank journals that provide critical
data on research, policy and perspectives, and by continually
improving our website and electronic media to make this information
available to all those who need it. We also publish authoritative
books, monographs and other materials on definition, classification,
and supports for persons with intellectual disabilities. Several
new products are in development and will become available soon.
AAMR has identified three areas of particular importance that
we consider our “niche areas” and we will continue
to focus on them this year. As a physician, I am particularly
excited that health is one of the niche areas that we will
emphasize. We have developed a broad understanding of health
that includes physical, mental, emotional, behavioral, social,
environmental and spiritual well-being. Our Community Health
Supports model provides a framework for planning services and
supports that promote health and wellness. Spiritual health
was emphasized in the keynote address at AAMR’s Annual
Meeting in June, 2004 and is promoted through our affiliation
with the Journal of Religion, Disability and Health, which
I co-edit with Bill Gaventa. Our Environmental Health Initiative
is pioneering the study of environmental toxins and disability.
Our Health Promotion Project is developing evidence-based guidelines
and recommendations for the most common health conditions affecting
persons with intellectual disability. A new project will focus
on enhancing communication about health conditions between
consumers and providers.
AAMR has been the leader in defining and classifying intellectual
disability for most of its 128 year history, and this continues
to be a niche area for us. This year we will continue to encourage
Federal, state and local agencies to implement the system we
published in 2002. Recognizing the need for a new way to measure
adaptive behavior that reflects recent research in the field,
AAMR has begun work on developing a new adaptive behavior assessment
instrument that should become available in a few years. We
will also begin this year to develop a coherent approach that
incorporates definition, assessment, classification and supports
planning into a single integrated system and correlated publications.
These products should also become available in a few years.
AAMR’s third niche area is supports. Last year we launched
the cutting-edge Supports Intensity Scale, a scientifically
validated system for planning the broad range of supports needed
by persons with intellectual disabilities. We are working with
several states to implement the Scale in their planning and
assessment process, which we believe will greatly enhance the
life satisfaction of the persons involved. The Positive Behavioral
Supports Curriculum is another extremely successful AAMR product
that assists providers to promote behavioral health using validated
modern techniques. This year we will explore ways to expand
the use of these products nationwide and consider new applications
of the Supports Intensity Scale in planning supports for youth
in transition.
For 128 years AAMR has been a forum for presentation, discussion
and dissemination of research findings in the field of intellectual
disabilities. We collaborated with the Arc and other agencies
in the 2002 national conference that defined national goals
for 12 areas of research and policy involving intellectual
and developmental disabilities. This year we plan to publish
the proceeding of this conference and will work with our collaborating
agencies to implement the recommendations contained in this
publication. We will also begin an open-ended process to consider
how best to encourage research and develop the next generation
of researchers in our field.
You can see why I am so excited to be President of AAMR at
this critically important time in our history and to help lead
our field forward into the 21st century. AAMR is unique in
so many ways, as a membership organization composed of students
and professionals from all disciplines and types of activity
supporting persons with intellectual disabilities. We learn
from our members and involve our members in all of the activities
of the organization. If you are not a member, please join us
and get involved! And let me hear from you. This will be a
great year for all of us working together to make this a better
world.
David L. Coulter, M.D
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