Know the Normal

So - when we're personalizing therapy, we can adapt behavioral activities from treatment sessions to work in concert with the person's frame of mind (or theory of mind), her/his preferences for daily living, and the pressures to think economically and efficiently to "git er done".Diane Ackerman, in writing about the stroke rehab program she helped sculpt for her husband, Paul West, helped stimulate his creative uses of language - in his pet names for his wife - as well as his being a career "wordslinger", as a novelist and essayist. Ackerman noted throughout ONE HUNDRED NAMES FOR LOVE the limitations of "speech therapy"; treatment approaches that demanded convergent thinking, instead of bolstering his strengths in divergent thinking.

We need to give  people grip holds for using their strength! Not only will they do word of mouth marketing for you, after you've given them a shot, - but you've also gotten greater opportunities for buy-in with work outside the person's comfort zone.

When you are proficient in tailoring your treatment to the individual you have learned - see also, how your person served resembles the population. Your role as a clinical scientist requires you then attempt replication of the most evidence based interventions for the impairments in question. Have you developed the best treatment plan? Its quality will be a cross-check of your baseline diagnostic impressions.

How well are you selecting goals and activities? Know all the demographics that matter for your person served.  Is the treatment plan one used for most people of similar age? Educational level, occupational or social history? Are you sure the outcome of the person served is what you would see in persons of similar profile? Every genetic mutation in the population, according to Siddhartha Mukherjee, is just a variation in the population data. Know the central tendencies, and know the variation for your population in your service area. What are strategies that may help?

* Do a baseline population survey for your clinic's market area, and update at least every five years
* Compile LOCAL NORMS on all the diagnostic measures used with your population, and maintain the data as the databases grow.
* Hold periodic public events for your clinical service, where persons who are not consumers learn about your services and share evidence of their own skill sets.

 "We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike" - Maya Angelou