Project Evolution in Health CareI developed the concepts for Voice RoundTables while working in four different health-care settings. (Click any one for a full description:) ▪
A private-practice setting
▪ A private-practice settingI developed the first ideas about conducting Voice RoundTables in the early ‘90s, while I was conducting volunteer and private-practice support groups that grew, in part, out of the AIDS epidemic. When participants were widely separated geographically, I conducted the groups using telephone conference calls. However, because conference calls proved both expensive and difficult to schedule, I sought a messaging-based technology as an alternative, and began experimenting with voice-messaging interactions. NYU Ehrenkranz School of Social WorkIn 1997-98, I further developed the ideas for voice-based medical support groups while in a graduate program in clinical social work at New York University. At NYU, the dean and several faculty members assisted me in advancing the project and in arranging pilot projects at two highly respected New York City health-care organizations (described below). Faculty at the schools of social work at Columbia University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also contributed informally to the project, providing ideas and references crucial to its development. South Beach Psychiatric CenterThe South Beach Psychiatric Center is a New York City hospital focused on mental-health treatment and support services. At the Mapleton Service, an outpatient facility of the hospital, I conducted a successful pilot with a number of psychiatric outpatients. The pilot is described in a paper posted on this web site. [Click here to go to the listing with a link to the paper: South Beach Psychiatric Center.] Cancer Care, Inc.Cancer Care, one of the most highly respected cancer-services agencies in the country, provides a wide variety of support groups to cancer patients and their caretakers, families and friends. Based in Manhattan, it is a national agency with a strong program of electronic outreach—specifically, outreach through a national toll-free counseling line and an interactive web site. At Cancer Care, I conducted a successful voice-based support group for six cancer patients located in five states around the country. The pilot project is described in an article in the AOSW News (Association of Oncology Social Work). [Click here to go to a listing that includes a link to the article: Association of Oncology Social Work.] |