Sunday, November 1, 2020

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken on Halloween of 2006. Mattie was four and a half years old and was headed to Zachary's (a preschool buddy) house to go trick or treating. Ironically, Mattie and I made this calico cat costume together in 2005. However, because he was hospitalized for sepsis on Halloween, he never wore his costume. Fortunately, it was made out of sweat suit material, and by 2006, the costume fit Mattie perfectly. 

Quote of the day: Tonight's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 9,189,715
• number of people who died from the virus: 230,870

I have gotten into a routine now. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is make breakfast and take it to my computer. Where I spend an hour or two doing continuing education. I find if I don't focus on it first thing in the morning, I don't have the time or energy to do it later in the day. Yesterday I finished a trauma course and today I started a 12 hour course entitled, Telehealth for Mental Health Professionals: 2-Day Distance Therapy Training.

One of the first slides the instructor showed us was this! Can you get over what happens in a minute on the internet? It is hard to believe that there are 973,000 Facebook logins, or how about 187 million emails are sent, or $862,823 spent on purchases on line in ONLY ONE MINUTE!!! 

Given the role that I serve in my profession, it is important that I understand trends and know how therapy is being applied across the country. Which is why I signed up for a telehealth course! This issue has come to a head during the Pandemic. Once telehealth was just an abstract concept and providers could choose to do it or not. Now the choice has been made for them, especially if they want an income.

The instructor shared with us some information that helped us see the trend or increase in internet usage in the USA. 

Whether we are talking socioeconomics or demographics, the trend is upward in internet usage. 

Imagine if 2020 was on this list! It would be 100%!

Again, the percentage would be far higher if we examined 2020!

Our instructor showed us this 4 minute video clip on what the internet is doing to our brains! I found it fascinating and I unfortunately do see the profound impact of such distractions in myself and others.  See it for yourself.......................

Our adventure today was to Great Falls Park. As soon as we started walking, we came across a mama deer and her baby! A favorite sighting of Mattie's! I can imagine his reaction if he saw this and frankly I can still hear his commentary in my head. 

The mom!

The baby!

They deemed us safe and continued foraging through the grasses!

The beauty of the falls.