Our Secret Weapon: Part 1

Guest host Preston Lewis, MS/SLP joins Dr. Jeanette Benigas to discuss the power of state-level advocacy, the importance of engaging with rehab companies, and the evolving role of SLPs in addressing diverse patient needs. With insights into state membership association dynamics and a special update about impactful initiatives in Michigan, this episode illuminates the transformative potential of SLP advocacy efforts.

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Creators & Guests

Host

Jeanette Benigas, PhD, SLP

Host of Fix SLP

Host

Preston Lewis, MA, SLP

Co-host of Fix SLP

What is Fix SLP?

Fix SLP is grassroots advocacy firm here to challenge the status quo in speech-language pathology by driving real change—from insurance regulations to removing barriers to full autonomy like the CCC. This podcast is your space to learn, engage and take action in the field of SLP. We don’t wait for change, we make it. So let’s fix SLP!
Hosted by Jeanette Benigas, PhD, SLP

Jeanette Benigas 0:00
Hey fixers. I'm Dr. Jeanette Benigas, one of the cofounders of fix SLP. Our platform exists to discuss the biggest challenges that are currently holding back the field of speech language pathology. We present the issues with facts and invite you to be a part of joining this movement to make things better one conversation at a time. So let's fix SLP!

Preston Lewis 0:33
Hey, everybody, welcome back to fix SLP I'm Jeanette. I have another co host with me today we have Preston Lewis. Hey, Preston.

Unknown Speaker 0:42
Jeanette, great to be with you.

Preston Lewis 0:44
We will get to who Preston is in a minute. But I just wanted to start by reading a review. I haven't done that in a little while. So this one is from the user one fixer love that one fixer said look at all of the learning I'm getting for free, give people an avenue for how to make change, and they activate. Thanks for addressing what we grumble about every December. Thanks for the rating and review one fixer, if you haven't yet. Go subscribe. Leave us a review. Five stars, please. We appreciate that because it gives us more visibility on the podcast charts. So today, we're gonna have Preston Preston and I have a lot to unpack. I just told him that we might need to make this a two episode series. So we'll see. Preston, why don't you tell us about yourself?

Well, I live in the Little Rock Arkansas area, and I have been an SLP for 14 years, I came to the field quite a bit differently. We all talk about what we want to be when I was 17 years old, I was convinced that I was going to be a television broadcast or sports announcer weatherman somewhere in that vein, I did a lot of sports broadcasting. Then about my senior year of high school, I got a scholarship offer for an athletic scholarship. But the funny thing about that was I didn't play a single sport, not competitively anyway, to be an announcer for a college basketball and baseball team. I took that scholarship and started out in broadcasting finished my four years of college. And then life happens. I met someone that I was very enthusiastic about building a life with, I wasn't convinced that that person wanted to move to Tupelo, Mississippi while I was going to take the morning weather man job at a television station. So about that point, I had to find a field that appealed to me, that would sort of bring in communication and reaching out to especially the elderly. I had a couple of grandparents that had Alzheimer's. So I decided to go back to school I took a job as a speech therapy aide at the Fayetteville public school system in Arkansas. Then went on to post baccalaureate into a program got my Master's in speech therapy back around 2010. It was kind of a difficult transition, especially being post baccalaureate coming from a different field and also being really the only male that we had in that cohort. And in my program, can talk a little bit about that later. There's some interesting perspectives I went to work in the skilled nursing facility kind of world for about 10 years really enjoyed it a lot of rich experiences. I think that I've always been that kind of speech therapist that because coming from a different background, I didn't feel like I was probably just more of a true clinician getting to know my patients, and not really mixing a lot with some of the academia and some of the other speech therapy world that are doing conferences and that kind of thing. But I often felt like especially in that sniff world where we have productivity requirements, and the demands were just so incredible, especially through COVID that, are there any other skeptics out there that are trying to find some ways to have conversations with rehab companies or maybe questioned some of these things about Asha. Then when this movement came along, I was just blown away? I was like, wow, these are the SLPs that I've been looking for, that are willing to ask some tough questions have different kinds of conversations. So that's how I came to the field. I've got a daughter who's going to be 12 next month, and it's it's exciting time to be in the field. I still work. I did leave the sniff world back a couple of years ago. Now work in a psychiatric hospital setting, which is different keeps every day very interesting. And you have to keep your head on a swivel some days, but it's certainly it's a field that I'm still very passionate about and I'm happy to help this movement as well.

I just told someone earlier today. I haven't told you this that you are in Fix SLPs secret weapon I have been talking with Preston. I don't know, I feel like with my mom being sick, I feel like the last thing I remember was five weeks ago rushing her to the hospital. So I know we've been talking longer than that. So I'm going to say like the last six to eight weeks, you've kind of been communicating with me. And I found you after you found us on Facebook, you started doing some awesome posts. And I don't know if you were tagging us or someone was tagging us, but it was great. And I thought we need this guy on our side. And you are. So that's fantastic. You have some really cool interests, I think that I don't know anything about. And that's sort of the world of politics and lobbying. And you've had some things to say that have been really helpful. Yeah, we're all learning through this. And so why don't you tell us about that? What is that interest in? I don't know. You just talk. I don't even know what to ask you.

Oh, you're great. You're great. That's partly how when people say you go to a party, and someone asks you, what do you do, I often introduce myself and say, I'm a speech therapist and a recovering politician. Because along with my history and being in speech therapy, I also was a an elected city councilman, for a town here in Arkansas for three and a half years, took on some tough issues ran for mayor of that town did not win, running against incumbents is always very, very hard, but did the whole thing where we knocked on doors and got involved in issues, fought some really hard battles, I got out of politics in 2016, there was a local issue in my community where a petroleum plant was going to be about less than a mile from school. And I fought very hard against that in one. But around 2016, politics changed, certainly on the national level, that changed for me at the local level, things just got too complicated. So I decided to step away from it. But getting involved in this movement, I think blends two different things that are at least passions of mine speech therapy, and also the political kind of issue oriented side of advocacy for trying to achieve some of the aims that fix SLP has particularly are running the surrounding the CCC. So using some of those skill sets to speak one of the filthiest languages out there, which is politics, I'm going to try to help and had some great conversations with some SLPs already in different states. And so if I can help communicate with bureaucracies out there, whether it's state Medicaid boards, if it's state senators, state representatives, on a certain level, then I'm happy to do that there's a sort of a very ugly art to politics and trying to figure out what issues and how you communicate with those people. That's something that I have some experience in. And if I can offer passion and experience, then I'm happy to try to help.

It's very passionate. It's so good, it's so good. I'd like to say I don't know that I can take credit for this. But I've deployed you to a couple of states now. Right? So are we allowed to talk about what you've done?

Yes, you put me together with and some of the others also reached out the speech therapist in Michigan, and the ones in North Carolina, who are just both sets of speech therapist. I'm amazed. These are the colleagues that I have longed to interact with, because we get so insular in some of our clinician worlds that we're in. It's, for me, this is the kind of passionate sort of advocacy about issues that really matter are state licenses and what they mean that is huge. And in the case of both of those states, I think it's issues of dealing with some bureaucracies that are out there trying to get past some habits that some of these states have gotten into where we're going to do the same thing we've always done, which is our Do you have CS cards, do you ever sees, this is an opportunity to engage those bureaucracies to kind of take a broader look at Hey, we got state licenses. But I remain very impressed with both the Michigan and North Carolina SLPs. We had a meeting with one of the state representatives in Michigan and I was fortunate to be on that call. And just trying to put those questions in context of this is what we do. We have state licenses, yes, we all carried this certificate. But that is a product and this is a nonprofit, and this is being used as a right to work instrument. So if you can put that into a political terminology, I think then you can start to see some of those wheels turning to achieving that clinical equity that I think we've been looking for. I can't thank you enough because when I started this coming at it from the side of somebody who's been in politics, sometimes you get that Pat passion and anger. And we've certainly seen a lot of what I would call righteous indignation right now with the rate increase and some of ashes antics, I think is how I would put it. What I have seen is, yes, there is passion with these SLPs. But there is such determination, I think such quick processing of the information, and being able to say, this is our goal, this is how we're going about it, and not really getting lost in the weeds. And it's made, I thought at first isn't, you know, maybe I'm gonna have to kind of explain some of these things. No, no, no, no, no, they are explaining to me and I am listening. I'm learning a lot from them, but also able to try to help bridge some of that political divide for them. And so I can't thank you enough. It's, it's great to meet those kinds of folks. And they have been awesome.

And that's what I was gonna say you led me to it, is that these clinicians, I am not really helping with these initiatives, this was the dream of fix SLP is that we would be able to equip clinicians to make the changes in their states that are needed. And I'm certainly kept in the loop, maybe not in full details. But hey, we had this meeting, it went well, I know what's going on. But every time that I have talked with the clinicians in Michigan, and in North Carolina, they have been so professional, and so calm, and just like you said, we're just really smart, and they have it together. And I so I just want to say that out loud, because I know that pretty recently, ASHA has referred to them as angry SLPs, damaging ashes relationship with Medicaid. And that is not the case, I cannot see that as the case at all. So I kind of want to go to bat for these groups of clinicians who are advocating and advocacy is hard, and it gets messy. And sometimes there's name calling. And I think we're starting to see that a little bit. But they're not angry. They're they're just so level headed, and just so impressive.

Right. And they are and today, I mean, this was a great example. You got the message, I think on Instagram, I received a private message from Mikayla with this draft legislation of sort of defining the speech therapist does this sort of job and they are, you know, licensed. And it was playing it was simple. And I was blown away. Because I didn't think we were at the point of even asking for draft legislation. And I thought way to go, they're out ahead. They're just they take the ball and run with it. And yes, it's, it's it's something and you're right. It's it's so easy right now, I think to sometimes get discouraged, especially when people in our own profession might view us as a hostile element. When in fact, I think if anything, we're trying to do more to define what it is we do, and fill in some of these gaps here of advocacy where there has been a gap, you know, that's what it is. Yeah, it's, it's, I've gotten questions. You know, I had a meeting with my boss recently, and I had planned on having the fix SLP conversation and coming out as a fixer, I guess. Can I say that? Yeah.

You're a fit. Not only are you a fearless fixer, you are the secret weapon - two names!

Wow, goodness, secret weapon. That's great. There used to be a baseball player with that nickname, I'm I'm warming to that. I my boss came to me and I was we get together socially. And she's fantastic. She is presented at ASHA before she's, you know, got academic credentials. She has her doctorate, really terrific person to work for very intelligent. And we get together socially. And I was prepared to have that conversation with her. And we sat down over drinks. And she said, Well, I need to know about this excess LP thing. Her eyes were just so wide. And I thought, Oh boy, here we go. And I was a little bit on the backfoot. And we got into the conversation. I said, well, first of all, is this a problem? And she said no, I want to know more. And that's the thing I really appreciated about my boss. And I would hope that a lot of people even if they're skeptics of fix SLP or if they are very passionate about Asha Hey, that's great. But let's have a conversation. Let's ask questions. She my boss had gotten approached by some folks within the state of Arkansas some of them were a bit off put by some of the things that I had written. And she said Well, are you wanting to you know, tear down ash and I said, Well, I have my own feelings about Asha. But you know main thing is I want to decouple this CCC and not seen it is used as a right to work instrument make it more voluntary make this thing grow, if anything, raise the requirements for a CCC but make it an optional certificate. And when we started having that conversation, she was just more intrigued. I don't think we necessarily agreed on every position. And you know what, that's okay. We don't have to agree on everything. But I appreciated the inquisitive nature. And so for a lot of those speech therapists, they're thinking, you know, is this gonna go on my permanent record? Or is, you know, the ASHA police gonna come lock me up. If your colleagues and your organization that represents you is not willing to have a conversation with you, then that's kind of a problem. And so the message that I passed along for any of the Arkansas SLPs that are concerned about my positions, or what it is I'm doing, let's have coffee, let's sit down. Somebody can call me a dirty dog if they want and say that I, you know, I completely disagree. I think you're dead wrong about this. That's fine. I am willing to hear that. And here's my position. So that's the thing that I think a lot of SLPs are afraid of that conflict. I'm not, I tend to think sometimes a little bit of conflict, or at least some skepticism is a healthy thing. And so that's my challenge right now to those that question that or to ash itself is, are you afraid of having a conversation with this? Because I'm not?

Clearly I'm not either.

No, no. Self initiation is not your problem.

Jeanette Benigas 16:16
Yeah, no, that's it. Actually, it might be a problem. But that's a different podcast episode. Yeah. So I want to before I respond to that, I want to back away up because you said something that I don't want our listeners to lose, because you made a really big, super huge announcement, you just kind of dropped it in a sentence. And so I don't want people to miss what Preston said. Preston said that the the Michigan group got draft legislation. And what that means is a state representative drafted a piece of legislation that would if passed, and this is very early on, it's this isn't something that has, you know, passed and been put into action, but if passed, would allow the clinicians in Michigan to bill Medicaid without the CCC. This isn't a meeting. It's not a conversation. It is a piece of paper with like, the little the little lines that are each numbered by a lowercase letter in parentheses. Yeah, Preston's pulling it up. Yeah, we wanted this kind of stuff to happen. And it's happening. And that is a huge win for every fearless fixer who has gone to bat online, with their employers with their state, who has had the tough conversations that Preston just mentioned, who who has done anything who has shared the content, who has rated and reviewed the podcast, this is a result of all of the work that people are doing to make changes. And this, this is the first I'd say a big win. We've had some other small wins that I have not yet posted about. But we'll as I hop back into getting content out, but this is a big win. So I wanted to acknowledge that because you kind of just said it. I thought people are gonna miss what he just said. So that's huge. So stay tuned on that. We just got that today. You heard it first here. But it's it's a big deal.

Preston Lewis 18:18
Yeah, and I'm the kind of political geek that I will say I saw this and I was very excited for them. And I thought, wouldn't it be great to take this across the line from a draft bill to an actual bill, maybe at the next legislative session in Michigan, that look, I'll get on a plane, I'll go to Lansing, they will show up at the committee I will testify I will knock on those doors. And that's that's what I know you're passionate about and I definitely am is that look if you're in Carson City, or you're you know, in Austin or somewhere like that, and you've got something like that that fix SLP is willing to really help you you know, along with give me a call. I'll be here. This is this is fun for me. I'm excited for them and what this means for speech therapist in Michigan and elsewhere.

Jeanette Benigas 19:06
Yeah, and I want to add on to that that the conversation very early on with Preston was can we hire you to work for us in this capacity? And Preston was like, I don't want any money.

Preston Lewis 19:20
Well, I don't know about that.

Jeanette Benigas 19:22
No, he said let's just see how this plays out. And so you know, right now I'm I'm still doing this work for free Preston is doing this work for free. We are here volunteering our time with no other agenda, but to make things better for SLPs with our strengths, and this is his strength. And so that is how he's gotten involved in Michigan and in North Carolina is that as clinicians have come to me with problems and said this is the problem. This is what we want to do. I have said I have the guy for you. Let me connect you with Preston and I was continuing to do that always asking him if it's a okay that I connect him with people. I hope that this relationship with Preston continues, and that maybe someday we pay his bills. I mean, who knows? Who knows where this is in 15 years. But yeah, Michigan, this is already going well. So yeah, we'll have a meetup we can I got my sweatshirt on. We can all agree. Well, like all this is an exclusive. It's the only one that exists.

Preston Lewis 20:25
I've seen the t shirt, but I've not seen the sweatshirt.

Jeanette Benigas 20:27
It's just me. I had it special made. Maybe we'll run one next fall. So everyone can have one.

Preston Lewis 20:34
Envy it is pouring over me right now.

Jeanette Benigas 20:38
Yeah, I getting up to Michigan, I am. So looking forward to that day when we could all have a meet up in Michigan. And I did just decide I wasn't sure if I would renew my license there. I haven't been doing as much teletherapy work. And so I thought, I'm so busy. Now, I don't really have time for that. But I'm going to so I can have a reason to even have my face anywhere in Michigan, to fight these fights with you.

Preston Lewis 21:03
Mikayla, Moe and Alexis, we're all gonna force you to get that thing even if we have to pitch in on it.

Jeanette Benigas 21:07
Yeah, I'll do it. All right. I've got a hard out today Preston. What else do we want to talk about? Okay, what else is on it? We have a long list.

Preston Lewis 21:15
Let's see, I'd like to talk a little bit about the state chapters and what you're doing on that. Let's do it. Okay. So I really like this reach out to the state chapters. Because one thing that in politics that we've seen over the last, particularly last 15 years, especially with Citizens United, and all of this PAC money out there that's influencing congressional races, is that a lot of the changes that are still possible, are happening at the state level. And so all the more reason that I think more robust state associations will help us now more than ever look at the podcast with the guests you had from Ohio, the things that they had done there. It's incredible. It's exciting, the Texas SLPs, what they're doing with their state association, you had a great pod with Montana, those conversations at the state level really have a lot to do with reimbursement. But I think it's more or even more exciting to take that maybe somewhat into the private sector, again, about finding those gaps where there isn't that advocacy right now. I can tell you during those COVID years in particular, I would have really appreciated to have a more robust, and this is nothing against the Arkansas State Association. They're doing great things with trying to teach rehab companies to do telehealth, I had a rehab company that I worked for that was not having it not interested. But I was really grateful that ARCHA was offering those services. But if we can have state associations that are starting to have at least an open conversation with some rehab companies about trying to address issues of productivity rate increases that have not happened, you and I were saying today we've had companies that are still paying the same rates from 2008 2012. I don't see that advocacy right now at the national level and trying to talk to Congress is just a, I don't see that having a big game right now. But if we can have those conversations at the state level, that's going to be a big tool. And I'm trying, I'm just tickled right now, every time I listen to one of the podcasts and the new state associations about finding out what they're doing, it's great.

Jeanette Benigas 23:25
Yeah. And they could do so much more if people would just join. And that, for me has been a vision of mine personally, since the beginning, Megan and I took a meeting very early on with someone who has a lot of knowledge of state associations. And it was clear that neither one of us knew what we what fix SLP was going to be or what its purpose was or where we were heading. I mean, this was in infancy, which is funny to say, because what were like six months in I don't know, it's still in its infancy. But this was in the first couple of weeks. And I said something to the effect of, well, we could support state associations if they need the support. We could be. At one point we said, you know, one of our goals is to pay for lobbyists, if people like our clinicians in Michigan or clinicians in North Carolina needed it, could we crowdsource and crowd fund lobbyists or lawyers, and we kind of decided early that that's not the direction that we were headed. But as things have progressed to where we are right now, it's clear that that's what needs to happen. And so it's kind of fun to have said that out loud. And now here we are kind of starting to do these things. And I think it's because we're all learning, and we're learning that really the power is at the state level, and that those state associations are very helpful in helping to do things that we as clinicians need and want at The state because remember, we keep saying this, the power, the not the power, but the regulation. Okay, the regulation of our field was transferred from Asha to the states in 2016, when the last state licensing board was established. And so now the states regulate our profession, not Asha, the states regulate. And so the states are who we need to be working with, when it comes to advocacy, and changes and conversations and workload caps. And these, you know, like you said, reimbursement, reimbursement is a state issue, except for Medicare. It's a state issue, because these are state insurance companies, right? Every every policy, they, you know, there's like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Pennsylvania Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana blue, I've had them all, I feel like in the last few years, there's Aetna Blue Cross Blue Shield of Ohio is. So this isn't a national conversation with Blue Cross Blue Shield, it's a conversation which with each of those companies within each state, and so these are state issues, and getting these state associations on board, so we can come alongside them and be a part of the conversation and potentially contribute to the resources that they need is huge for me.

Preston Lewis 26:29
let me I think I can define there's lobbying for lobbying sake. And I'll paint you a picture of that. And then there's really what I would call effective lobbying that really gets to the crux of the issue and a way in which can actually enact change. So just going through the motions of lobbying. And I'm going to say this, is when you go to Washington, DC, and you go inside the congressman's office, and you're having a cup of coffee, and you're all taking pictures of next to the plaque outside of the congressman's office, and oh, look where we went today, and everybody's got their Sunday best on. Okay. Yeah, there's there's a lot there are a lot of organizations that are doing that. And at the national level, I think that moving those initiatives forward, it's hard. It's a big process. And I think that for our field right now, in particular, effective lobbying, is when you have a dozen speech therapists that live within an individual state senators district, showing up at a town hall and asking questions, because the congressman, let's face it, they're relying on PAC money coming from so many different directions, and so many different types of lobbying organizations out there, that they're a Washington ocean of money. But that local state senator, if he knows that he's got 12 SLPs, in his district, or her district, they are going to stand up and pay attention. And based on the fire that I have seen from our SLPs, I have the utmost confidence that they will follow through.

Yeah, I love that. You just said that. It makes me so excited for what I have planned. My daughter is friends with another little girl who lives in the next neighborhood over whose mom I have gotten to know over the last five years, they were in three's preschool together. And now they're eight in second grade together. And I I've always known that she worked for a former state representative. She works in gas and oil, which you know, is like big time. She's a registered lobbyist in Ohio. I just learned this I think last night or the night before, and I asked her to come on the podcast outstanding about lobbying, and the work that she has done and what she called it what you just said what you led in with was effective lobbying. She called it educational lobbying, same kind of thing that you just said, but she said, I'm not just a lobbyist to lobby, you know, she's like, there's a lot of dirty money in this whole thing. She said, lobbying is most effective when you can be an educator and educate well, and help people understand why your issue is important. And she said, You really just have to be a good reader of content and policy or whatever it is that you're trying to lobby for. And learn how to communicate that in a way that people understand and make it important and then you just educate everybody about it. And I'm like, girl, you need to come on this podcast. She want to be there. He travels again still gas and oil she travels a lot so we're looking a couple of weeks out she's out of town now and out of town next week, but in two or three weeks she's gonna recall record with me so we'll hear how you know another not related to speech pathology, but how she's doing it in kind of another way for another field, which gas and oil makes me nervous. That feels very important. There's a lot of fighting and gas and oil. So sure is there is Yeah. I really hope that more states will decide to come on the podcast as scheduling is always tough. Because there's a million timezones and people work. So I try to make myself available. So if states are listening, reach out, get with me, we'll figure it out. But I have some more in the works. And another thing that I'm hoping to do is give them some advertising spots for free on this podcast that if they have conventions, or CEU opportunities open to people in their state, or maybe people outside of their state that they could advertise it for free on this podcast as another way to support them. So that's something I'm moving towards as well, as soon as I find a moment in time to learn how, in certain ways,

I would like to close on the state chapter issue by really putting a challenge forward to some of these state chapters. And this has been identified in Arkansas, by some of the folks that I've spoke with the deal with Archer, great organization, that state chapters are very, sometimes school SLP centric. Again, finding those issues out there that bring on the clinicians that are just going to work day in and day out who have kind of felt like they just haven't had a big voice. If we can start to have those areas of conversation, I can sense there is a willingness, particularly now with a lot of people questioning their affiliation with ASHA, there's a willingness to say, where can I put my investment as an SLP into? And if I've got an organization that's willing to have the kinds of conversations that I've been hoping people will have, that's what I want, then Arkansas, and I am very grateful to Archer for having conversations about telehealth. But let's talk about productivity. Let's talk about rehab companies that are, I think, sometimes misusing their SLPs. That came up a lot during COVID, where we were so focused in that world over Medicare Part A patients that were coming back from the hospitals and back in the old days of meeting rug levels, where we just overlooked a lot of our Part B patients. And I know that kind of goes into a whole other conversation, Jeannette, but that for me was a big part of COVID was when we saw those part a start to disappear out of our building. I picked up scores of Part D patients, and found that there are so many needs within a nursing facility with your long term care people that are there. Until a quick side story is I saw that caseload dwindle, I started thinking about communication, we had people wanting to communicate with their loved ones that were beyond the building and watching them try to talk to their loved ones through glass. It was, oh, gosh, it was one of those kind of, I think the word trauma might be a bit heavy for it, but it's something I still think about. So I tasked myself with how can I help these loved ones communicate. And at the time, this is gonna sound a little strange. I figured everybody up here that has Medicaid can qualify for a cell phone, a free one. And so I picked up some part D patients help them with the application process for getting a free cell phone, setting it up where they could, and they got a smartphone, some of them where they could FaceTime with their loved ones, they could talk with them without having to go to a communal phone in the facility and wait for certain time slots. And that part be billing, I'm sure it was great for the rehab company in terms of the reimbursements that they were getting. But it was more important to our facility. And showing that the SLP can take on roles that sometimes maybe we've overlooked. And the sad part about it was is that in the end, I still got transferred to a different building. And I thought, my goodness, this is what we're supposed to be doing. And so I would like to see rehab companies get approached by an SLP organization that says, look, there are other things that your SLPs could be doing besides just getting 45 minutes with this person every day so we can meet this reimbursement. I want that conversation. I hope there's somebody out there that will pick it up there.

Jeanette Benigas 34:13
I know people! I'm gonna connect you with more people.

Preston Lewis 34:16
Good

Jeanette Benigas 34:17
COVID was rough for me too. the same rehab company that I have worked for for years. I was the tribute. No one was allowed to travel but me. And so I was the only SLP traveling in the company all over the state. There were days they paid me for seven hours of travel to see three patients. That was a tough time to deal with those same issues but always in a different building and sometimes not being in a building for more than a week. But I like to admit my wrongdoings here in this podcast, I absolutely was the speech pathologist who was opening the window so those patients could talk to their loved ones on the other side of the window without it being closed. Yes, like everybody stand five Get back. I'm opening this window and no one knows how it happened and I'm leaving the rooms. By the time I get caught, I won't be at this building anymore

Preston Lewis 35:09
I will be 30 minutes down the road.

Jeanette Benigas 35:11
Sometimes I'll be on the other side of the state. I mean, come get me

Preston Lewis 35:16
I can identify with that. I won't self incriminate too much, but um

Jeanette Benigas 35:19
I love to self incriminate on this podcast

Speaker 1 35:21
I did a lot of we did a lot of outside therapy and that we might have had a few loved ones that came by out there on the gazebo. And it was time well spent. Yeah.

Preston Lewis 35:30
All right, Preston, I think we need to wrap up this. Part one, I'm calling it part one. There's now needs to be a part two, because we there's still more stuff on the list. So I've got to move on to my daughter's voice lessons. All right. I can't remember I've tried before, cannot record the podcast and do a voice lesson at the same time.

We'll take care of that. And we'll pick it up on the second half. Yeah.

All right, everybody. Thanks for tuning in today. If you have not yet checked out our sustaining partnership program, head to fix slp.com You can read a little more about that. We're hoping that people partner with us at $5 a month we don't have a Patreon but it's pretty similar. That's how we're going to pay for expenses. I'm vetting a lawyer to look at some financial stuff and we can make more movement, the more money we have to use. So thanks for fixing it. Bye everybody.

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