I got word that October was Appalachian Counseling's highest billing month in the history of the agency/practice, so kudos to everyone for heeding the call and kicking their work up a notch. As we push ahead into the liaison system and get accustomed to NueMD, it's great to hear that folks are rolling with the punches. After over five years of constant change and flux in the mental health system and in our jobs, it's great to know that we're on track to hit a delectable period of relative stability and undeniable success.
Rachael Smith said, passed along the info that we'll be "officially" closing our offices between the hours of 12 and 1. "Providers who would like to schedule during that time would be free to do so, they would just need to attend to that client themselves. Unless I hear stong opinions to the contrary, I would like to go ahead with that. We would need to change voice mails and make sure a sign gets put up at each front desk."
She also says, "we are getting more adequate filing help to assist at all sites. Alisha will be coming over to Asheville every Friday again beginning next week. We are also looking at quickly hiring another liason for Brevard, since Kathy will be moving over to Kanuga soon."
The above mentioned Rachael also has a new workphone. So stop what you're doing and put it into your phone now. Otherwise you'll be hunting around for it on some future date. 828-384-1655.
Erica Cook sent me the big list of who got birthed when and who got hired when. Here are October's belated shoutouts and November's current yeehaws.
Workaversaries:
- Byron Allday, Adult CS worker and one of the survivors of this year's Chicago Marathon, celebrated one year with Appalachian Counseling on October 16th.
- Wendy Taylor, Child CS worker and powerhouse superstar, had her anniversary on the same day - 10/16.
- Thalia Brennan, yogic master and Tapestry superstar, started with A.C. last year on November 20th.
- Josh Beran and Jessica Buhrman, Child CS workers and bon vivants, both celebrate one year with A.C. on November 13th.
- Kristin Doyne marked one year with us on September 25th.
- Heidi Houser, who's found a home at Tapestry, has been here a year as of October 30th.
- Pat Menser, substance abuse group leader and all around mensch, had her first A.C. anniversary on Oct. 15th.
- Joell Steininger, Asheville adult therapist and new homebuilder/owner, is a one-year App Counseling contractor since Oct. 24.
- Janet Hall, wise woman and wiseacre, got her four year pin on November 1st.
- Kathy Parris, who's done every job in the agency except Psychiatry (and I'm not really sure about that) has her four-year anniversary on Nov. 18th.
- Polly Penland passed the AppCounseling half-decade mark on October 1.
October Birthdays:
- Michael Smith - 10/2
- Rachael Smith - 10/8
- Kamilah McNeil - 10/16
- Diane Satterfield - 10/23
November Birthdays:
- Tina Nowak and Dr. John Pierson - They both turned 29 on Friday, Nov. 2nd!
- Cindy Willis - She had hers Saturday, Nov. 3!
- Teresa Drevar - It was yesterday! Nov. 4. Happy day, Teresa!
- Pat Menser - 11/12
- Dr. Harry Taub - 11/24
A new award has been created in order to stand up and recognize those who stood out from the crowd as we try to get this patient liaison system up to speed. Jane Ferguson, CEO and sleep-deprived fearless leader, sent me the envelopes:
Patient Liaison of the Week for Oct 29, 2007 was Laura Zabodyn of the Alliance office!
Patient Liaison for the Week of Nov 5, 2007 is Kamilah McNeil of the Hendersonville office!
Laura Donelan had her last day with Appalachian Counseling last Friday. We're all going to miss her expertise and consistent ability to get done what needed to get done. As our number one person at Accounts receivable, she's the one who kept bulldogging the insurance folks to get you what you'd earned. Thanks for everything you did, Laura, in your three-plus years with Appalachian Counseling.
Brent Schlueter says: "I am going to be in a play with Hendersonville Little Theater. It is "Kill Joy", a comedy thriller. It should be quite funny. It will be performed for 3 weekends, starting 11/16 and not including Thanksgiving weekend. It has adult language and situations. It should be a good opportunity to see me make a fool of myself at a non-AC function.
A second note of interest, at least to me. In August, my wife (Pam) and I finally got our cerificate of occupation for our house. We have been building it ourselves, for the most part. It has been a 4 1/2 year project with us living in a camper trailer for 3 1/2 years and squatting in the house for a year. It's nice to be there legally with all the amenities that come with that: flushing toilets, electricity, heat. My world is good. "
Tina Nowak's selling: "I have a 2007 Seadoo GTI, 155 Horsepower, only 10 hours on it. Need to sell due to having to pay storage since I sold my house. Paid $9500 in July, Sell for $7200. 551-2717."
Crystal Lance reminds us that "Teresa is on vacation from 11/2 until 11/12. I am going to be covering for her during this time."
That's about all for this edition, but I wanted to leave you with an interesting article for the sleep-deprived or those who love them. Click here to read the whole thing, or just read the excerpt below:
Without sleep, the emotional centers of our brains dramatically overreact to bad experiences, research now reveals.
"When we're sleep deprived, it's really as if the brain is reverting to more primitive behavior, regressing in terms of the control humans normally have over their emotions," researcher Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, told LiveScience.
Anyone who has ever gone without a good night's sleep is aware that doing so can make a person emotionally irrational. While past studies have revealed that sleep loss can impair the immune system and brain processes such as learning and memory, there has been surprisingly little research into why sleep deprivation affects emotions, Walker said.
Walker and his colleagues had 26 healthy volunteers either get normal sleep or get sleep deprived, making them stay awake for roughly 35 hours. On the following day, the researchers scanned brain activity in volunteers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they viewed 100 images. These started off as emotionally neutral, such as photos of spoons or baskets, but they became increasingly negative in tone over time—for instance, pictures of attacking sharks or vipers.
"While we predicted that the emotional centers of the brain would overreact after sleep deprivation, we didn't predict they'd overreact as much as they did," Walker said. "They became more than 60 percent more reactive to negative emotional stimuli. That's a whopping increase—the emotional parts of the brain just seem to run amok."
Send your suggestions, questions, submissions, complaints, and juicy peaches to me at gsmith@appcounseling.com
See you next time!
