CEO Corner – March 2024
April 18, 2024
As a family created and driven organization, HBI has always striven to ensure that it also served the families of the individuals. Some of our professional leaders were better at this than others. I have always believed strongly in this principle.
This value is of profound importance when one is delivering services to individuals with severe to profound disabilities. With individuals whose disabilities are less severe, there often is a difference between what families think and what their relatives think. Then, it is up to the service provider to represent the individual and work with the families to accept their relatives as adults. But individuals with profound disabilities often lack the capacity to chart their own course. Their families, of necessity, must often chart it for them, while the professionals work as effectively as they can to draw it out of the individuals.
Doing so involves a lifelong commitment that many families come to terms with over time. Most of us parents give up that burden when our children become adults. Not so with families of individuals with severe disabilities. The toll of this lifelong commitment is often agony, pain, guilt, anger, isolation, and great uncertainty. But it can also bring pride, joy, and immense satisfaction. And great learning too.
These are the themes of two spectacular books written by two fathers whose sons received or continue to receive services from HBI. Steve Harris has written Dads Like Us, A Survival Guide for Fathers Raising a Child with Disabilities. Samuel Lieberman is the author of Strong Shoulders. Both are excellent writers; the books are well-written, compelling, honest, and highly intelligent.
To continue reading the full book review click here.
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