Pivot Points

 Some months ago now, I was suddenly awash in the realization that I had accumulated nothing to leave to the world, before it was my time to leave it. While it's been a big part of my motivation for this blog, to leave a legacy of speech-language pathology as I see it: that's it the best kept secret in town; that it's a profession so poorly misunderstood, and because it's poorly represented in our culture; that it had allowed the hopelessly nerdy science geek with a deep love of the arts to meld together all his interests, and become a human service worker that affects a fundamental need of everyone: communication with our fellow human beings....I don't feel I've helped make a difference, yet. 

What sometimes makes a life or career distinctive, is highlighting those points in time where decisions were made, actions taken, that altered the course of your day - to - day existence. Each of us can get caught galloping so hard inside the hamster wheel, no matter our life path, that it's hard to see the bigger picture - hard to get the perspective of experience and clinical judgement that helps you decide "What Does it All Mean?".  The blog affords me that opportunity to "zoom out", and make sense of the many events that have made a difference in my life. Previous posts in this blog have already highlighted some of the important periods in this SLP odyssey: 

November 9, 2012: "What I Want to Do"

You devote your time to doing things with words; to eating with pleasure anywhere you want. 

November 28, 2012: "Primary Prevention Products"

You can obtain low-cost, real-world tools that help you stay fit for thinking, for talking and swallowing throughout your life span. . 

September 22, 2013: "Information Has to Get In To Be Used" 

You not only have difficulty understanding individual words, but you also lose the power of interaction when hearing loss becomes cognitive loss. 

June 29, 2014: "Organic SLP"

Instead of carrying over the effects of impairment-based therapy to real life at the last visit, you focus on real - life function from the beginning.

February 29, 2016: "Wellness for your Career, for your Life" 

You need to have a plan, or plans, to manage conditions for burnout, and keep your work and life balanced. 

July 3, 2016: "Pneumonia and Its Discontents"

Confront your mentor; if that person has lost the luster that you had applied to her/him, in the formative years of your career, there's still hope. 

November 4, 2016: "My Ethnography"

Know the culture of your consumers and stakeholders; know the culture of the therapeutic alliance.

November 26, 2016: "Why Ethnography?"

Your successful outcome is helped by maneuvering the cultures in which the consumers and stakeholders exist; 

 

July 9, 2017: "Cherry Cherry"

Gather ye evidence while ye scour/all the best sources, no matter the hour. 

April 23, 2017: "Communication Fitness"

You can do some simple things, some of them perhaps in unusual contexts, to sustain or improve your skills, throughout your lifetime,  BEFORE therapy is called for. 

January 1, 2018: "Be An Entrepreneur "

You should sell what you do; provide superior customer service, and your business acumen will be known by more and more people.

January 3, 2019: "On the Other Side"

When you're a caregiver, you understand caregivers better. You can help empower them, so your consumers can do better.

January 27, 2020: "Goodbye, Dr. Carey"

Who am I, as healthcare becomes most visibly a business...? Not a stable pony; not interchangeable.  The SLP must function as part of a system,  and be respected for the quality brought to the system. 

January 4, 2021: "Swallowing at the Crossroads"

Swallowing rehabilitation is influenced by layers of scientific,  social,  technological,  political and moral forces. So are all the other interventions you might provide to consumers. 

This is a list of some of my professional pivot points, or times in my life where I said 'aha' and my world made more sense. What are yours?