A Final Word from Dave Hingsburger; Let’s Read and NOT Talk This Month!

by | Dec 9, 2021 | News

The year 2021 has been difficult for most of the planet. A continued pandemic, political unrest, racial inequities, natural disasters and the list goes on.  For those of us in the intellectual and developmental disability community, we experienced the passing of a giant.  Our friend and colleague Dave Hingsburger, passed away earlier this year.  His loss is enormous, however, his legacy, his contributions to our knowledge base and his advocacy continue strong.  For 10 years Dave, along with co-founder, Angie Nethercott, published The International Journal for Direct Support Professionals.  Currently, there are over 10 years of back-issues and well over 100 volumes. These powerful and practical journal articles have guided and informed direct support professionals throughout the world in over 130 countries.

The National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP) began a wonderful partnership to amplify The International Journal in 2014 via our, “Let’s Talk with Dave Hingsburger” monthly webinar series.  In these sessions, Dave would interview the many different authors of each month’s journal submission and discuss the articles in depth. These monthly webinars grew in popularity and continue to be an anticipated monthly event for the NADSP community and beyond.

When Dave passed away earlier this year, we were shocked, saddened and we deeply grieved. We still miss him terribly.  We also knew that if we dropped the ball on the webinar series and monthly journal he would be extremely unhappy.  Angie Nethercott, Chanelle Salonia and myself met and decided we will continue forward to honor his legacy.  Dave would have wanted that.

So, here we are at the end of 2021 and we are very pleased to offer you the last article Dave Hingsburger wrote for The International Journal for Direct Support Professionals.  This is vintage Hingsburger and you will most definitely enjoy, “The Zen of Tom”.  It is wonderful.

Lastly, we will not have a Let’s Talk this month and we will lovingly end 2021 with a tribute to Dave in a way that he would approve; we will read his words.

Happy holidays to you all.

International Journal: Understanding Transference and Countertransference in the Direct Support Profession

In this article the author discusses the importance of understanding our role as direct support professionals when it comes to seeing our role as one of “professional” versus casual or friend-like.  The article discusses some things that are valued and used in social...

International Journal: Holiday Tips 2.0

As we are approaching another holiday season with uncertainty about what is safe for those we support, we want to offer a few suggestions of things you may do as a direct support professional (DSP) to make the holidays as enjoyable as possible. The International...

International Journal: The Zen of Tom

The following article was written by Dave in May of this year for our December journal. It is the last article he wrote for the journal – his gift to us, and we are honoured to share it with you. The International Journal for Direct Support Professionals contains easy...

International Journal: One Candle: Finding Hope in the Darkness of a Pandemic

We have lost a lot but, in place of those losses, we have also gained, and I think we have learned so much. In all this, there always needs to be room for hope. Hope for the end of the pandemic, hope for the future. It comes up in conversations in talking about dreams...

International Journal: The Art and Science of Verbal De-escalation

Conflict is inevitable in life, as we all have our own perspectives shaped by personal experience, what we have been taught, and the way we internalize these thoughts. This is personal to each of us. While we cannot eliminate conflict totally, a savvy, skilled, and...

International Journal: The Art of Apology

Working so closely with others in service to those who are vulnerable to us in so many ways, means that mistakes will be made, feelings will get hurt, and the ‘spirit’ of the place can be destroyed. We are humans, so that means we can be nasty, we can be oblivious, we...

International Journal: This Hot Mess Called COVID-19

In this article, I want to focus on what we can each do in the coming months to help our sector emerge from this “hot mess called COVID-19.” People think we are going to get out of this hot mess with vaccines. This is definitely one huge essential step, a necessary...

International Journal: The Pandemic, The Professionals, And The People

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are at three times the risk of dying from Covid-19 disease. Many of the individuals you support have underlying medical conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, breathing problems,...

International Journal: A Deep Dive Into The NADSP Code Of Ethics

We all have values and ideas/notions about the way things should be. We may work for provider agencies and/or people who hire us that have a specific set of rules and policies to follow. These may interfere with the process that is needed in order to abide by the...

International Journal: Ethics For Direct Support Professionals

Direct Support Professionals constantly act in situations and circumstances that warrant a guidebook. So many times, there are situations that involve split-second decision-making skills and instantaneous reaction. These situations could be life-threatening or could...

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