Earlier this year while visiting family in Kansas City, I had the opportunity to go horseback riding. I zealously donned my old pair of blue jeans and a black shirt I had hastily packed the day before, assuming the dark tint would mask the vast amount of visible Kansas City terrain the ride would leave behind on my clothes.
However, what did not cross my mind, was which black shirt I had inadvertently chosen to pack. Turns out, it was the one with a huge ASHT logo on it. Why is this significant? During that afternoon of horseback riding I had people come up and inquire about the letters I was unpremeditatedly promoting. It left me thinking, what an effortless way to endorse our society, just a t-shirt.
My personal experiences have only increased the validity of this approach. For example, the other day I went to the grocery store after clinic, and was thus still in my clinic shirt that contains our hand therapy name and logo. While checking out, the teller, who had an elastic stockinet around her forearm, saw my shirt and proceeded to tell me her story and took my card. And as unintentional and informal as that, I was able to gain our organization a new patient.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people do not really know about our specialty, yet how many of them need us. I bet I get at least 3+ calls a month from friends or family that need some direction or help with something that happened to their hand. It makes me wonder who people call when they don't have a friend or relative that is a hand therapist? Are we visible enough to the public so that they can access us when they need us? Are we each doing our small part in “spreading the word” about hand therapy? It is so effortless to help our profession become more visible. Proudly wear our ASHT pin or a T-shirt with hand therapy on it, write a blog or respond to queries on Facebook. Let us use our subtle resources to help us help others, even while off the clock. If each one of us had a goal of reaching 5 new people a month that did not know about hand therapy, how would that affect their health and our society? Do the math.
