Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

September/October, 1998

Correspondence

June 7,1998

Deborah Gardiner President National Association of Disability Examiners

Dear Debi:

As you are aware, I have been functioning as the Team Manager for the Disability Adjudication Training System (DATS) workgroup. Part of my assignment has been to facilitate the writing of a Key Initiative within the Social Security Administration (SSA) Strategic Planning Protocol for this year. That Key Initiative, if funded, will help move the DATS project along at a faster pace and with the security of institutional support within SSA. Another part of my consultant activities has been to visit with NADE members at Regional Meetings this spring and summer to ascertain the level of support for the DATS project which will encourage the professionalization of disability adjudication. Since you have also been at these meetings, you know that the DATS project has already been endorsed by the NADE executive committee and has been received enthusiastically by the general members in attendance at the Regional Meetings. The time will be quickly upon us when SSA executives must make decisions about Key Initiatives to be funded in the next fiscal year. If the NADE support for DATS is as strong as I believe it to be, it is extremely important that this sentiment be shared with Dr. Susan Daniels, Deputy Director for Disability and Insurance Support Programs (DISP), in a clear, strong and timely fashion.

I believe that the voices of NADE need to be heard at the highest executive level of SSA on this important plan for national standards, a systemic training protocol, and the recognizing of Disability Adjudication as a profession. I encourage you to develop a strategy for those individual voices to be heard.

I strongly urge you and your board to invite NADE members to contact Dr. Daniels in Baltimore by letter, fax, phone, e-mail, etc., to tell her how strongly they feel about this Key Initiative. They should especially attend to the comprehensive nature of DATS which encompasses in-service, continuing education, and pre-employment venues for training. They should focus on the goal of DATS to create a comprehensive, systematic agenda for training Disability Adjudicators in SSA.

If I can be of any help to your board or members, please feel free to contact me at (phone)217-333-4623, (Fax) 217-244-6784 or (e-mail)chrisann@uiuc.edu

Thank you for your support and attention to these matters.

Sincerely,

Chrisann Schiro-Geist, Ph.D. Team Manager, DATS Workgroup

c: Susan Daniels