Surveillance

I've enjoyed watching people most of my life. Whether it's sitting in the stands of a sports event, walking through the corridors of a state or national CSD (communication sciences and disorders) convention hall; if it's not playing tourist during my occasional playing hookey days in the "Windy City", then it's enjoying a new route between stops on my home health schedule - seeing what people are doing, how they're dressed, what are the secrets they're sharing, but that I can't hear - !! People - watching, it's my jam, my marmalade and my preserves, too. Years ago, I had figured out that watching and listening to others was my primary learning style. Shyness plus my stuttering and my endomorph body type, made it an easy decision to watch and learn, over diving in and getting involved. It could have led to stalking people, or worse? I was too afraid to do more. "I like to watch", says Jerzy Kosinski's character Chance. That fit me.

Of course, years of hindsight would tell you: that's too bad; it was regrettable that this kid didn't find the strength, or didn't get the push from behind, to step up and make more acquaintances and friendships. It wasn't my style, how I saw the world, what greased my gears to make it through my life. My style had made it easier to analyze, break down and rebuild my batting style as a leisure baseballer. Watching how other gardeners design and manage their garden plots, helped streamline my own plant care. My parents each showed signs of hearing loss, from the time I had gone off to college, so their communication struggles gave me insights on how I might help others with similar problems when I became a professional. I was getting experience in surveillance. Through watching and listening, I learned to identify problems and head off any problems becoming worse. Surveillance I learned - I could do for both fun and profit.

Surveillance, commonly known as "screening", isn't a reimbursable service for most clinical professionals. Yet it is one of the more powerful tools CSD clinicians might pull from their toolboxes. A screening clinic that opens its doors for free, to all members of the community, has a magnificent opportunity to provide service to persons who might never know about what CSD professionals do. The opportunities to teach and counsel the people who volunteer to meet with you can germinate into increased clinical caseloads, increased exposure to the entire healthcare system, and increased hope by communities for their needs being addressed. New fiscal support systems need to be developed, so that surveillance - properly known as secondary prevention - can make the CSD professions as well - known as labubus, and more fun to use. I like to watch. I like to help.