A Wellness Concierge? Part 2

 There's the normal chatter, networking going on as the break is ending; gotta get this session back on track. I already see a few of them flitting about at the back of the meeting room, complaining about the DISMAL number of plug-ins for their phones. The tide pools of the Convention! OK, mike works. AV works. GI tract works, after that quick lunch....here we go. Prevent, prevent, prevent....

"Hi Everyone. So many of us came back, so there must be something good going on here - right? If you are new to us today, we're continuing on with the topic of a speech-language pathologist, also serving as a WELLNESS CONCIERGE. That is, the SLP and AUD can have as a product line, education and referral services for her market that direct consumers to community wellness services. We offered in the morning session, the idea of preventative services that might help prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD). CVD, manifested as ischemic heart disease and stroke, was the #1 cause of death worldwide in 2019, according to the World Health Organization. 

 "As healthcare and education professionals, with a national scope of practice that unambiguously states, prevention is something we will do - we have a responsibility to help consumers ward off changes in their bodily function that might lead to heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular impairments. As a body of professionals, we regardless have only scratched the surface of what prevention can do, for the people we serve. And, we have these ideas of keeping people free of CVD, but - how do we do it? 

"Let's explore each of the major incentives to help our consumers prevent CVD, with some examples of what the SLP clinician might do to help achieve each incentive - from the morning session. We're using the 2019 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines for primary prevention, as a guide:

 " * We naturally raise the visibility of our professions, audiology AND speech-language pathology, when we are active in the broader community, interacting in collaboration with other human service workers for health (fitness trainers, dieticians, smoking cessation specialists, gardeners, etc.)"

"The SLP has incredible opportunity to grow her business, regardless of work setting, when she builds collaborations with the greater healthcare provider community.  Where an SLP may have very general knowledge of what a personal trainer, or an herbalist does, an SLP/wellness concierge can tap into a knowledge base, taken from personal research into the community's resources. That marketing research can include a review of databases, personal visits to community wellness providers, working together with the providers on community wellness events, establishing formal agreements to serve an identified customer base, and many more joint ventures. Though many potential wellness consumers may not use dedicated SLP services, an SLP/wellness concierge will have been given them direction for staying heart - healthy. 

 An operative definition at becoming an SLP/wellness concierge with emphasis on CVD prevention, might include: 

1. Do you have a grasp of the SCOPE of CVD primary prevention? Can you wrap your head around the need to balance a consumer's monitoring her risk assessment, nutrition, weight control, fitness, blood sugar control, control of fats, blood pressure, smoking risk and blood coagulation?

2. Also, wrap your head around - what can the SLP control? Risk assessment, blood sugar, fats and blood coag are 'above the pay grade'  for most of us, and would require the help of a medical laboratory.   The rest - nutrition, weight control, fitness, blood pressure and smoking risk - all have well- organized, well - entrenched behavior management networks in place, in many of our communities. 

3. Part of the work of the wellness concierge would be, then, to get consumers access to the best promotion/prevention programs. The other part is, helping create viable networks for consumers where there are none. 

' " * We grow our knowledge base for helping our consumers, when we reach from tertiary prevention (reducing the odds for disability), and secondary prevention (identifying potential impairments for bodily function) to primary prevention (reducing or eliminating exposure to risk factors for CVD)" '.

" Training to be an SLP, who does provide evaluations and treatments - how much background in health promotion and disease prevention do we really acquire in training? Unless your master's program adviser has picked out some electives for you in those domains, or your externship supervisor has directed you to offsite programs that will expose you to actual scenarios for teaching prevention strategies - it's on the job that you learn, how to offer service after the sale. For example, a demonstration vegetable garden, that consumers may or may not have had a hand in growing some product, may give up some of that product to allow tastings of vegetables produced in a kitchen. When you can help make vegetables taste good, to a consumer who may or may not have cardiovascular disease, you may have a hand in helping that person prevent further chronic disease."

"Operationalize an SLP's preparation, for a side hustle as wellness concierge:

1. Do you have any hobbies, or any interests, passions, or nagging desirous interests for your own lifestyle - that you could bring to a consumer community? If you garden, teach it. If you run, model it. If you are a devoted advocate for wellness activities, advocate it.

2. Do you need formal preparation in health promotion/disease prevention? Perhaps a University training program in public health near you, will afford you a certificate or degree in this area. Six of the top 10 public health schools, as rated by US News and World Report, are in the eastern US. One, Michigan, is Midwest, and the remaining three are West Coast. A 5/4/22 Fortune article by Meghan Malas asks, if getting a Master of Public Health degree is worth the time and expense required for the new skill set you acquire. The answer seems to be, an enthusiastic 'Yes'!

3. Self - preparation for becoming a wellness concierge/ CSD professional will largely come from independent study: for example, popular works on integrative medicine (Andrew Weil), vegetable gardening (Rodale), fitness (APTA), and blood pressure (Harvard Medical School) - they'll direct you to primary sources of research, that enhance your work with your consumers. Likewise, video and online resources on these topics make teaching and marketing of prevention services much easier. 

" * When we help the larger community access wellness information, services, and ways to sustain their desired level of function, we develop potential consumers who may be educated on accessing services, when/if the need might arise. "

"Think of concrete steps you might take, to show your market that you are ready to serve persons at any point in their health journey. 

1. Tell the market about you: get free ads posted wherever you can, whether print or digital, that describe who you are, what you offer, how easy it is to contact you, and why you are unique among providers.

2. Show the market how easy it can be, to find efficient, schedule - friendly and cost - effective wellness services, accessible to them and that can meet specific needs. 

3. Teach the market - that they have near total agency in sustaining/improving their health (in this case, cardiovascular); that consumers can share their thoughts on health status with their MD, not just waiting for the doctor to set the consumer's plan; that the teaching about staying well can become inter - generational - that the youngest in families learn from older ones, that's the way it's done."

Make history! Grow your clinical practice, by adding a skill set as a wellness concierge.

Finally, whew, it's over. Those 20 folks quickly flew outa here; many going to the airport....puts on my "ASK ME ABOUT..." button , and steps out the meeting room, just barely avoiding TRIPPING on a phone charger cord....