A Serendipitous Invitation
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PROFESSIONAL ISSUES
A Serendipitous Invitation Margaret A Sahhar
Received: 25 October 2011 / Accepted: 16 November 2011 / Published online: 2 December 2011 # National Society of Genetic Counselors, Inc. 2011
Keywords Defining moment . Professional development . Genetic counseling . Critical incident
A Serendipitous Invitation-Margaret A Sahhar My defining moment happened in the late 1980s when I was employed part time as a social worker in the Genetics Unit at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne Australia. I was a member of a multidisciplinary genetics team working closely with a clinical geneticist colleague principally with families who had a child with achondroplasia. There was no genetic counselor on the team- indeed this was not a recognized profession in Australia although several people were working in a genetic counselor role in existing multidisciplinary teams in other Australian States. Several clinical geneticists had worked with genetic counselors while training in Canada and the USA. They were very keen to “introduce” this role to Australia and they began discussions within the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (HGSA). I did not usually attend these meetings due to the demands of my young children and the nature of my part time work. Returning from one HGSA meeting in 1988, my colleague arrived back to inform me that there would be a steering committee appointed and he had nominated me as M. A. Sahhar Genetic Health Services, Parkville, VIC, Australia 3052 M. A. Sahhar (*) Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected]
a “person with counseling expertise” I agreed-with some trepidation being aware that I would be the junior member of this group and had limited general genetics knowledge. Coincidentally I had just returned from a trip to Washington DC where I had spent time with Joan Weiss, a social worker and Victor McCusick, a geneticist, working with children with achondroplasia. While there I had met a few genetic counselors, so I was aware of the variety of roles in which they functioned. I was also aware of some professional boundary issues between social workers and genetic counselors at that time, for example-the potential conflict with counseling role especially in terms of psychosocial counseling. So we met. Our steering committee consisted of the president of the HGSA, a PhD scientist working as a genetic counselor,my colleague,another clinical geneticist on the Executive of the HGSA and me. Our charge was to consider the feasibility of introducing the profession of genetic counseling to Australia, including considerations of training, guidelines, certification, manpower, and wage structure. While we were a congenial group with a common aim we had to tackle several some very difficult issues. These issues included &
Logistics of training in Australia. Australia has a small population spread across a vast continent. The projected need for genetic counselors initially was modest to serve this small population, necessit
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