By Chris Wolski
It is almost a cliché that those who have reached a particular point in their career and life should "give back" to society. Typically, this means donating money or time to a worthy cause.
For medical professionals, this cliché has been given a new currency and immediacy since the events following Hurricane Katrina. Though the destruction has been heartrending and surreal, there have been moments of inspiration, particularly watching the heroic efforts of understaffed and overtaxed medical facilities to both save lives and help return people to a sense of good health and normalcy.
The disaster has shown medicine at its best, going to where help is needed no matter the danger or personal cost, with volunteers swarming to the affected areas. And while this close-to-home disaster may be on people's minds with its obvious course of action, the crisis will--thankfully--pass. But the need for help will not.
While a helping hand is the best medicine in an immediate disaster, knowledge is the vaccine that minimizes health crises such as the one we are witnessing in New Orleans and Mississippi and the tsunami relief effort earlier this year in Southeast Asia. For those who have been particularly inspired to give back by unfolding events, but will be tied to responsibilities until after the crisis passes, organizations like Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) offers an opportunity to give back a therapist's most precious and lasting commodity—their knowledge.
HVO is dedicated to pairing therapists with their opposite numbers in such far-flung spots as Bhutan, India, Nicaragua, and Vietnam to pass on knowledge that can be then applied by the local therapists after the Americans leave. The idea, jokes HVO executive director Nancy Kelly, is to "work ourselves out of a job."
This sort of opportunity appeals to the adventurous and to the person who wants to give back to the profession and to the world as a whole. But the benefits are reciprocal, and are most times revealed when the therapists return home. Kelly reports that many of the therapists find that their experience has given them a new perspective and appreciation for their career and their practice. In other words, they have had their batteries recharged. This is not surprising considering many of the volunteers are at mid-career, that dangerous time when professionals begin reassessing their lives and career goals, finding easy lures away from their chosen vocation.
And as beneficial as this personal development is to therapists and the object of their good will, their employer can feel the benefits of new-found growth and perspective, resulting in improved performance and a longer tenure. The care of the spirit is as important as the care of the body. It allows, in this case, a therapist to gain a deeper, more profound understanding and appreciation of themselves and their work, and society, as a whole, is all the better for it.
—Chris Wolski
