Ever since I was young, I've been demanding, "What are the secret words to cure pain?" I saw therapists out there and I was furious that the people I loved didn't get access to their promised solutions. Instead, I saw suffering and hopelessness and suicide in my communities.
I learned about research and said, "Yes! That! Look, we even have incontrovertible evidence that your magic words, magic therapy sessions, they fix our world's problems! How dare you keep that to yourself?"
Of course, I eventually learned that there were no magic words - not exactly.
There are therapy processes that can help heal a lot of pain, though. Also, the therapists themselves weren't malicious or withholding, that was an indirect effect of the complex medical systems that forgot about the people they were meant to be serving.
So, I found my way to what is called, "implementation science" - an incredibly jargony term that refers to my question:
If we know this works, why don't people use it?
I love implementation science. This is the most interesting question to me. It's so cheeky and fun.
Sometimes, it just turns out that researchers forgot to tell therapists to use the new stuff. They published a paper and moved onto the next big thing. (Secret: they didn't have funding to work on really getting the word out to the people who need their discovery, so that wasn't a priority)
Or sometimes, the therapists are in their break rooms complaining that yeah, they could use the new skills, but they don't buy into it and all the weird new magic words feel... weird and awkward. So they're not going to do it. (Secret: they're also really tired and don't want another unpaid task to add onto an already overly full plate)
I'm searching for opportunities to combine implementation science with design and academic research. I know these fields need one another and I want to make this fusion happen.
I learned about research and said, "Yes! That! Look, we even have incontrovertible evidence that your magic words, magic therapy sessions, they fix our world's problems! How dare you keep that to yourself?"
Of course, I eventually learned that there were no magic words - not exactly.
There are therapy processes that can help heal a lot of pain, though. Also, the therapists themselves weren't malicious or withholding, that was an indirect effect of the complex medical systems that forgot about the people they were meant to be serving.
So, I found my way to what is called, "implementation science" - an incredibly jargony term that refers to my question:
If we know this works, why don't people use it?
I love implementation science. This is the most interesting question to me. It's so cheeky and fun.
Sometimes, it just turns out that researchers forgot to tell therapists to use the new stuff. They published a paper and moved onto the next big thing. (Secret: they didn't have funding to work on really getting the word out to the people who need their discovery, so that wasn't a priority)
Or sometimes, the therapists are in their break rooms complaining that yeah, they could use the new skills, but they don't buy into it and all the weird new magic words feel... weird and awkward. So they're not going to do it. (Secret: they're also really tired and don't want another unpaid task to add onto an already overly full plate)
I'm searching for opportunities to combine implementation science with design and academic research. I know these fields need one another and I want to make this fusion happen.