 all types of brains. And so, of course, we're going to talk about it at Brain Club. So Brain Club, of course, if you're new to Brain Club, this is our very intentionally created education space for the collective ADB community to provide education about neurodiversity and related topics of inclusion. Just a reminder, this is an education space. This is not a place for medical or mental health advice. This is not a support group. ADB does provide those types of services, but this, but not at Brain Club. All forms of participation are okay here. As many of you have figured out, you can have your video on or off. And even if it is on, we don't expect anything of you. We certainly don't need you to sit still and look at the camera or anything. So feel free to walk and move and fidget and stim and eat and take breaks and all of it, whatever needs doing. And everyone's welcome here and all forms of participation are welcome. Observations are completely valid for participation, but we also do want to create space for everyone to be able to share their ideas, either unmuting and using mouth words or typing in the chat. Most of today's time together, we have a prerecorded collection of interviews with, including with many of you, with members of the ADB community and staff talking about this topic of reimagined healthcare and community. So during that, it'll be about 28 minutes, about 28 minutes, exactly 28 minutes, during which time the chat will run in parallel to what's happening on the screen. Then we'll have plenty of time for discussion to follow. We also like to name that here in the ADB village, we normalize that we all have different brains and bodies. There's no one correct type of brain or body and that we affirm all aspects of identity and it's really important to us that everyone feels safe and included. And so if that's ever not true, please send us a direct message. We have private messaging turned on. You can send a message to me at any time if you feel excluded for any reason so that we can take action. And you'll see that if you're new to Brain Club that we very intentionally facilitate Brain Club in order to try to cue safety for all people. And because our goal is to create a space where people can come together and collectively learn and unlearn a place where all people can feel safe and experience something that may be quite different from other domains of their life for many. Last thing I'll note just about access is we do have closed captioning turned on already. You just have to toggle it on if you'd like to use it. So depending on your version of Zoom, you might see the closed captioning live transcript icon, but if not look for the more and choose show subtitles. You can do the same and choose hide subtitles if you'd like to turn them off. And that's my visual support to remind me to actually open the chat window so I'll see it if anybody's using it. All right, so as I mentioned, we have been discussing health and belonging all month and all really really when we think about all of the places and all of the settings that are so hard for so many people to access let alone feel like we belong. And part of what we've been trying to do here is create something where it doesn't have to be that hard. So I want to, some of you know this history, but many of you may not. So just to catch you up on, you know, because it's really only been two years since ABB launched into the world. And we really had a beautiful evolution of community vision, because this is a co-created community. This is a village of people coming together to reimagine what's possible. But where we started, it started off really in a pretty simple way, which is that we all have different brains that do things differently. So let's try to offer some stuff in many different ways, and then everyone will be able to participate and take part and come together. So that's how it all really began, just to try to not have any defaults. We also began with a community forum where we asked folks, what does inclusion mean to you? And for Brain Club regulars, you might remember that we did this here at Brain Club a couple weeks ago, because it's that vision that has been our compass over the past two years. And over the past two years, it's really been about integrating all of the different ways that we can support people into one unified lens, integrating medical care into social connection, employment support, education, with the idea of really reimagining healthcare and community in such a way that people who have felt misunderstood, neglected by all the broken systems in this world and who felt isolated can come and can feel like they can show up as their true selves and feel connected to community, because we think that that isn't really critical part of health. And what we've learned over these past first two years, we're going to share four lessons, and then we'll go to the videotape. The first being that healthcare is more than medical care. Like when I was in traditional primary care setting, I'd spend almost all my time in the exam room helping people navigate life outside the exam room. And we are so grateful that this has resonated with so many people, because, of course, healthcare is more than medical care. Of course, health is everything. And as I said, there's no one right way to think, learn, communicate. And so using universal design principles, offering everything to do in multiple different ways and giving people freedom of choice to pick what works best for them. Just in the community, what they need, what you need. You know, when people talk about systems change, you know, we need these big, big top down changes to happen. That is one way that systems change happens. But it's not the only way. And so systems change from the ground up of just reimagining, trying it out, checking in, seeing what people need, try to do it. And I think, and this graphic is showing our All the Things project, which is like the perfect example of this for those who don't know. And Lizzie, if you can pop in the chat, the link to the All the Things page. This is a project over the past year, co-created with input for more than 100 of our community members about the pattern of intertwined health conditions that so many autistic and ADHD adults struggle with. And what we did was we learned what actually helps. And we learned what does not help. And we integrated lived experience into all the things. And then lastly, of course, connection is the path to help. And I think that what we see is that for so many people, it's been so hard to feel safe showing up with other people. And like lived experience has been, social interactions, they're terrible, they're hurtful, they're traumatic. And so being able to co-create this village where people can show up to Brain Club, to group medical visits, to anything that we're offering. Where I think that is, and we talked a little bit about this earlier this month at Brain Club, around when one can shift their own story, like their own narrative of their own lives. I think that's what connection makes possible. Someone could tell me, you know, hey, late identified neurodivergent person, you're not broken and you never were. But like, I don't think, I just, I think the fast track, and it's not a fast track, but like just to really be able to understand one's own experience reflected back to you through other people's stories. That is so fundamentally part of health. And so with that, we are going to watch a collection of interviews with ABB community members and staff about the journey over the past two years and what the experience has been for them. David, take it away. Happy birthday, ABB. When you really think about it, Albury's belong is a pretty radical idea. The idea that we would no longer make a distinction between healthcare and the rest of life. Where we would recognize that health and connection were not only related, but that connection and belonging were fundamentally required for health. Welcome to Albury's belong Vermont. It's kind of an interesting place because it is a doctor's office, even though it doesn't really look like a doctor's office. And it's also where people can make friends. Also an opportunity to meet others in the community who are going through the same or similar things, which then gives us the opportunity to learn from each other's experiences and to really value and feel valued by each other and feel a lot less alone and a lot more hopeful. And so it ends up feeling like a community more than a medical practice. Let's be real. The status quo is not working. When you think about your experience trying to access healthcare, what comes to mind? I have medical PTSD. So when I think of the healthcare experiences that I've had, a lot of them have been very challenging, particularly from communications perspectives, trying to make myself understood to the doctor. Act in this way, communicate in this way, or you will go unheard. And not everybody can make that adjustment. And so those are the people that are staying away from healthcare because it's overwhelming or confusing or uncomfortable or unsafe. When I came here, I really thought my life was over. I thought my energy was so low. I thought all that was left for me was I was going to give up all my dreams and just sit on my couch and learn how to meditate because that was the energy I had. I was sitting with this friend over coffee, who was the director of the Vermont Disability Council. And she was raving about this new doctor in Montpelier who was out as autistic and starting a medical practice. I knew how to be a doctor, but I did not know how to start a non-profit, run a non-profit, run a medical practice. But what I did know is that in order to make an impact and improve the lives of neurodivergent people, you had to change the world. So like to do anything for the neurodivergent community, you had to do everything. It's not just healthcare. It's loneliness. It's school. It's work. It's everything. I came to ABB because I suspected I was autistic. And then when I found ABB at Fox Market, it was just all brains belong to Vermont. And I knew. I just knew in the moment. Like this is for me. I had no idea like even what it was yet. Raised enough money to pay a couple months rent and buy some insurance. And I just started like seeing patients like in an office by myself. The day before we opened, we didn't have any furniture. So I posted on front porch forum someone offered a recliner. I thought I'd got to start somewhere. So I go pick up the recliner. I tell the person what I'm up to. And she's like, oh, you need to come with me. And we drove across town to where her sister had lived. And her sister had just passed away. My sister would love what you were doing. And she and her family loaded up all this stuff in their trucks. And they drove me to our office. I sent text messages to like everyone I knew who can help unload a whole house full of furniture. When? Now. And that was our moving story to our first office at 250 Main Street, Montpelier. This is my exam room. This is where I sit. What interests me about all brains belong is the idea of a customizable menu to make an experience, whether it's a vaccine clinic or a medical visit in the office or a community gathering event, feel good to each unique individual. The initial, you know, hey, how can we best support you? Do you want bright lights, low lights, fidget toys? Do you want to have time check-ins? Do you want to have summaries sent? And going through that initial checklist, this is like, these things are in print? What? Being able to queue safety and adapt the environment for what people need. I get to see people come in who haven't been able to get care anywhere else and come in and be able to receive care. We are in, um, Nellie's office. Folks that, you know, are very, you know, wary, um, their nervous systems are settling down and they're leaving wanting to stay longer. The idea that we can just say, this is my access need. The, the way in which Mel has reframed that it's my fault that I'm not doing something correctly, that I'm broken, which is I feel like what the healthcare would say, like, you're not doing enough. And what I hear Mel saying is, you know, the medical system isn't doing enough. Did you know that it's literally free to ask people what makes them comfortable and do those things and ask them what stresses them out and don't do those things? And then I sent you my mind maps and my emails and I think other doctors would have been just overwhelmed, but instead you're like, oh, this is so cool. This is so helpful. It's also free to normalize that people can share their truth about their own bodies and their own lives. However, they are most comfortable. I, I have been, I've had autism since birth, but I haven't had the words for it or the understanding that this is my experience. So I'm doing a bit of time traveling. I'm going back many decades and I'm realizing that's why I did that. That's why I responded that that's why I needed it to be that way. And when it wasn't that way, that's why I melted down. That's why I ran away. Like it's all making so much sense now. I just recently got my autism and my ADHD diagnosis since then. My entire life has changed, to be honest. Prior to this, I didn't realize that a lot of the struggles I was having in my day to day life were pretty much all connected to autism. You know, me receiving my diagnosis was such a difference from when my child received his. We were, and I mean it when I say, we were literally handed a box of tissues. Here's your box of tissues. And when Mel told me, she was just like, congratulations, you're autistic. My five year old says, I have a really awesome brain. I have the kind of brain that can see patterns and make connections between ideas that other people don't make. I was so proud because like, yeah. Qualitatively, the experience at ABB is different and really sincere attempt. The most sincere is the attempt I've ever seen in a medical practice to meet people where they are at, to serve everybody well and to leave nobody behind. It's, you know, it's an incredible effort to make groups and meetings and medical care accessible and interpersonally, practically, financially. So before we launched, my board of directors was like, Mel, yeah, I can't do all the things. My PDA raged, like just watch me. But it turns out it's pretty hard to do all the things. Healthcare is more than medical care that we are also bringing people together through social connection, education, employment support, all the ways because all of this is part of health. Every aspect of my life has been impacted. Overcoming isolation. I'm really enjoying going to the weekly brain club meetings. Employment is one of the things you spend most your time with and I felt like I was just spinning out. Prior to Boost, I'd never understood the exact expectation of what I was supposed to do. So I was always overworking, just always, you know, end up in burnout. It's just like amazing and blows my mind that ABB has taken the initiative to work on creating employment opportunities for people in the neurodiversity community. That is like so fundamentally connected to my perception of health and well-being. It makes me feel like I have a future. We've received all of the services that ABB is providing. It's giving us the opportunity in our life to do the thing that we were meant to be here. A lot of people over a long time have said, oh, we need this or oh, we need that. And nobody had the energy and the skill together to do it. And then I met Mel and she had both and it's just been wonderful. I think one of our first game changers was the decision to hold a neuroinclusive COVID vaccine clinic open to the whole community within our first couple of weeks launching. This was a chance for the general public to see how truly simple this radical concept really was. You know, we all have different brains, different brains that think, learn, communicate, do things differently. And yet many things in society have a default and vaccination clinic is an example where the default thing is to get your vaccine in a crowded, large group environment. But for many brains that does not feel comfortable. So when we say inclusive, that's you feel like you belong. Who best benefits from this type of a vaccination clinic? Everyone. It's a unique, separate workflow for every person and every one benefits from that. The vaccine clinic is the first vaccination I've had that was actually pleasant, which is you don't really think of vaccinations as being pleasant. It made something so horrible into something wonderful. I got a chance to talk about what I liked. And I was 19 when this happened. So it's not just for kids either. It was a wonderful experience. And it's just one of the many wonderful things that all brains belong does. I had kids who traveled from all over the state on their fourth or fifth, the tenth at accessing vaccination. And while many were able to access vaccination, some were not. Even if kids are not able to receive vaccination because limbic system says no, I think it's reframing what success is. Success is not always just getting the vaccine. Success is wow, you recognized when you didn't feel safe and you honored your internalized signal of threat. Isn't that what we want? It's a good thing when people have a positive health care experience. Those neurons that fire together, the more they do that, the more that pathway pathway is accessible and has ease. There's no ease in that pathway for a lot of our nervous systems right now because there has been no autonomy because there's been no agency. There's been no freedom in choice. You know, we realized we had to start talking about these concepts. We had to give people language for their experiences. And that that was how Brain Club was born. Welcome everybody. Welcome to Brain Club. Brain Club is like a great innovation and like open to the public and a chance for like, you know, a robust discussion about during the spectrum of life issues. So without further ado, let's talk about some lid flipping. Yeah, or twice or like a million times. Four hundred billion times. Did you know that some people think that they're the only ones who flip their lid? Did you know that? No. Some people think they're the only ones and they like they like they feel bad about themselves. Do they? One of the gifts that all brains belong has given to me and I think so many other people is is a common language based on common experience that we didn't know existed before. And when we can see ourselves reflected in the stories of other people, we become more OK with ourselves. And so that that I think is the is the magic and and community and communication, you know, they sound they sound very similar. And and we promote both in an accepting village of people. You know, I had never heard anyone else talk about their burning hatred of leaf blower noise. And when I heard that, I was like, oh, oh my gosh, that's me too. Yeah, I'm not alone in that particular journey. It's helping to hear other people share because it's building up my my language, my communication skills. It's also smoothing out the rough edges of my experiences and of my perceptions. I'm less harsh on myself. I'm less sharp with myself like it's just kind of creating a glow like a smoothness around my experience, right? It's exposing me to people being so so beautifully raw and authentic because the space allows that. And I can't think of many spaces in life that that allow for people to to come together in this way and kind of like this radical act of trust. That means so much to me. I mean, so much to me. But like when you when you when you really think about it, right, I mean, it's it's it's like radical trust, radical reimagining of building trust in other people in this way that like most of us have never experienced before. And at the same time, what we're doing is not rocket science. It's not that hard to help people feel like they belong. I have been volunteering with all brains belong since it's very beginning. My kids also participate in some of the virtual community programs. All my life, I felt broken, lost and like a failure. Always thinking I was too much hating myself and wondering how others did life so easily. When we tell sweet little logs that the way that we are intuitively feeling in our bodies is wrong. Because there's a just so way to be. What do we expect is going to happen? When I realized I was an autistic ADHD year, I finally felt whole and loved myself for the first time in my life. ABB's resources and community have helped me bloom into my true self and made me feel like I finally truly belong. Shortly after we launched, I asked an eight-year-old in our junior advisory board. How do you think we can make kids feel like they belong? And without any hesitation, the sweet little love says, you just let them do what they love. That's it. Turns out, yeah, that's it. So we started bringing kids together based on shared interests. Stuffy night. And I was there to help with the kids because you know that's great. But then there was also like adults. I could have a stuffy night with adults. I have a stuffed coffee cup. I love that. I have a stuffed coffee cup and it's okay. Hi, I am Spencer and this picture I made the mega mushroom for Mario represents all brains belong because really all brains belong and I honor that. So this is my picture. When people talk about system change, I hear a lot of talk about top down changes. We need single payer. We need this. We need that. And like, yeah, those things would probably be really helpful. But I don't wait for that. And we don't need to. For those in traditional primary care practices, what's normalized is the dysfunction of the system. It's like, yep, this is just the way it is. So, you know, so that's what we have to do. So we're just going to keep doing it just felt like there has to be a better way to do this. But like everyone's stuck. Your organization has broken so many of the brain rules that I've seen in healthcare. How about we right now today stop shoving people into containers that don't work for them? How about we just ask them what they need and how to do it? When you really think about community, we think about bringing people together based on shared values and a shared vision of what's possible. The practice develops is informed and driven by patient needs is really developed and consultation with patients and like we're in these advisory groups and invited to join them. Like literally, I feel like the next week, I would have an idea or somebody else in the group would have an idea and it's implemented. Like it's a community that listens to people who are needing the connections. Really, what we're doing here is creating systems change. We are bringing people together and forming this community health village of learning and healing together. What I appreciate about all the brains belong is how they really take care of their patients, considering all aspects of health, mental, emotional and physical, and also how the providers are willing to think out of the box. So, I knew a lot about autistic health when we launched but I'd say the biggest surprise of the past year has been all the things. So, by way of introduction, we have a pattern here. A lot of different symptoms show up in the different systems of the body that were fundamentally neurologically related. On cold video and other, you know, medical issues like asthma. It's, you know, it's very common but it also seems that shouldn't ever be ignored. By elevating the value of lived experience, this has allowed us to learn about how to provide better medical care. It's different from how the mainstream healthcare system is doing it. For example, if somebody has chronic pain, they often get put on muscle relaxants, which if they also have sleep apnea because connected tissue is collapsing on itself in the airway, that's going to make this worse. Coming to ABB, where there is already such knowledge of if you have this, the likelihood that you have something in the other constellation of the everything is connected to everything, the angle of you have a higher likelihood of having something of these other things. So, let's just see what we're working with. Again, back to just completely mind blowing, what do you mean, healthier can be like this? This is the most proactive care I have ever gotten in my life. What I often see is once people feel safe and once people have been queued safety, they're able to engage in community and that's when we really see these kind of healthcare jumps for people. We see, you know, people come to group visits and learn from other people and have that shame reduction of, oh, it's not just me dealing with all these things. There's other people who believe me, there's other people who are like me and get really quality medical care too. And we are integrating that community connection into medical care, employment support, helping people arrive at a deep understanding of their access needs. Met Mel Hauser a couple years ago on the state house lawn and from Mel, I heard the term access needs for the first time in my life and that same day in texting with my family, I was able to create space for myself within my family for the very first time and I am 52 years old. The research says that the opposite of belonging is fitting in because you are changing yourself to fit the norms of the already established group. And what I realize now is I spent my whole life trying to fit in to belong but when I'm fitting in, I don't get to be myself. I get to be like the version of the outside world of trying to and how much anxiety that has cost me and how exhausted I am and that to be in a community where I get to explore and learn about my brain and other people and other people's brains. We're all in this together as individuals that you know that sees things differently, hears things differently and moves things differently. I am so grateful for all brains belong always knowing there's a place I can turn to be myself that can show up when I can, where I can, how I can and just to know there is support and resources, guidance, laughter. We do not do it alone nor are we alone. In like doing the work of showing up like showing up authentically and having other people also show up and over time and not even over time like it happened pretty quickly like people show up and you're like hey let's be authentic and they're like I don't know how to do that but okay I'll hear you out. I love working at all brains belong because I get to show up as my full authentic self. I am accepted and valued for the person that I am instead of a masked version of myself. I think the organization as a whole works to create and adapt systems to the staff and community that it serves instead of forcing people into pre-created and often inaccessible systems. Being a member of a team in a safe place where patients can explore their health and be supported in doing so. A truly an interdependent team and meaning that we support one another and we really are able to be transparent about things that are challenging so that we can work through them together and that's really cool. One of my favorite things about working at ABB is that we could show up in full-on pajamas. I was looking for a community of like minded individuals so that I could share my experiences and learn and I have found that in all brains belong. The more people who are talking about what's going on and they're for themselves authentically and then somebody's like oh me too and you're like oh yeah me too and you're like oh I see what I belong. It would take me paragraphs to explain that to somebody and still I'd walk away feeling like I don't really know if they get what I'm talking about at all. I can unmask, I can talk in a shorthand, people understand what I'm saying without me having to explain a whole backstory. Like to be understood and to be seen and to be accepted and welcomed and encouraged to participate it's just it's all the things as you like to say it's all the things. So do you have a place where I'm not masking and I'm not acting and I'm not spending over half of my mental energy trying to figure out what they expect from me? No I don't have that anywhere else. It's been a year and a half and had no idea my life I would have a life again. I just didn't know that I would make it and so when I say like I know I'll live a longer life it's not only do I live a longer life because I have the healthcare but now I have community and making friends I feel understood. All of these things that ABB are providing for me and then it's like the other patients. What do you say to people who don't feel don't don't don't necessarily feel safe enough to try something different don't have you know whether that be like you know trying a group medical visit trying brain club like trying because you don't trust other people why would I want to be around other people other people suck that's been my experience. I get the the terror and the pain of hope in a medical system that treats you like a problem and treats you like you're making stuff up and treats you like yeah a problem instead of a person. The best I can offer for someone has been hurt and gaslit and not believed is be brave once more once more because you will be believed at all brains belong and it's like being in a completely different world. I have no words. Sarah were you just going to try to bail me out when I couldn't speak turned your video on you're like I saw you you're ready I appreciate that I appreciate I was just trying to like stop crying because that's so so powerful and every time I see it it's just it's such a powerful compilation of clips in general but the ending to end with that note it's just yeah I think it encapsulates so much like what we're trying to do with all brains belong and but Alicia you can watch it all over again we'll first off I'll we'll put the link in the chat to the YouTube video or that is posted it's totally available I have watched it many times over and over myself um um but I I I one of and this is actually one of one of the parts of the video and I'm about to say next is like and it came from during my interview with Liz about like how how humbling it is that the can we say you will be believed here that for so many people there's that's not how it is in the rest of the like I think that like like I can only I get I I just to describe my own transformation over the past two years like I really feel like I mean not all the time but a lot of the time I have come to trust my intuition because of this community because I've now had the experience of being around people who get it my reality testing mechanism is different like I go in a place and like I'm no longer wondering if there's something wrong with me or how irrational I am and how like you know all these things because I I have a base where I can tell safe from not safe and so when the alarm gets sounded of unsafe like I recognize it's the environment it's not so I would love to invite anyone who would like to share their their thoughts their reflections whatever's on your mind either in the chat or out loud I mean for me there's a way in which the video says it all so I'm wondering if there's anybody who feels like who feels like here that feels like there's any part of their experience that is left out or anything they'd like to add to the video or because I'm having a hard time coming up with anything more just from a personal perspective what a beautiful question hurting my soul starting to feel like I have a sense of community so glad you're here I'm so glad you're all here I think this is a brain club I'm going to remember forever there says I think this is the first time I've come across a medical community setting that I think would actually listen to me too often I get told that my issues aren't real or that it's just anxiety yeah I mean that's so common right that's just so common and it's I mean it's it's it's almost all of our new patients come in are telling stories like that um because it it's um and and uh we can I'll dig it up and put it in the chat um we did a brain club we did a brain club in June and I think we replayed it in September um with uh it was a community panel of people talking about exactly what you just said Taylor it was like a whole panel of people telling stories like that um and it's it's and and again like when you're told you're wrong and that you can't possibly know your own body like you're told all of that and like you're fed that narrative um and you don't and you think you're the only one when you realize that you're not that changes everything just like we like to talk about um you know we talk we talk a lot about the double empathy problem here um double empathy problem being a term coined by Dr. Damian Milton who's an autistic social scientist in the UK he coined that term to talk about how it's the mismatch of worldview the mismatch of communication styles that leads to things Lily um leads to communication breakdowns and in in in health care like the system the system so broken and it's thwarting the access needs of the clinicians who who then um are not perspective taking and connecting with patients worldviews and communication styles so just like all all of these layers of breakdown it's like health care system as villain as opposed to individuals and there's so much harm so much trauma that goes on in those conditions Mel have you ever um I mean I think that I have a I have a way of articulating but I wonder if you have of um have I ever ever articulated sort of the the medical basis or that that that for that part where you said you know when when you intuitively sort of got in order to do anything for the autistic community we have to do everything so I think there really is a really um for me there's a really sound basis but I I'm wondering if um if there if uh if you if you got the way before me and and there was something did just say that um we know that you know like like if if I think about like the buckets that ABB provides services in like we know that each of those domains is is connected to someone's health um even as like narrowly defined as even like medical life like there's medical consequences of social isolation for example so you know um social isolation has the equivalent impact on health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day so like we know that and then like employment um you know we know that um employment challenges are also independently associated with poor health in both directions so um poor health can make it more employment challenges but but being unemployed increases the risk of chronic illness by 83% like that's connected um then you know so when you when you when so I would say that um that's the way I'd answer that question or just like we know that health is health is everything and so everything's connected to everything and especially when we even you know we think about when we think about all the things like the constellation of intertwined medical conditions that autistic and ADHD adults um mostly all have here um is like the autonomic nervous system and the the immune system um which are um reacting reacting to everything so many things in the environment that are unsafe and so like so so that's another way that I answer that question yeah I was just wondering if there has been any effort made to get the way all brains belong looks at things um from a very patient-centered point of view whether there has been any effort made to connect with um UVM medical school and around how they train physicians and MPs and stuff like that um because I think at some point that would be a really great link to to make because I know I know I've worked with a lot of um med students and a lot of doctors who want to be different than the clinical model teaches them that they have to be in the clinic and I think this video tonight demonstrated that ABB says you can accommodate everybody and success can look like different things and and I think it would be really important for uh UVM medical students to hear this and I'm I'm wondering if that's in the works or something you're planning to do or something yeah how much for the question and linked in with that question just like the the the beautiful sentiment that underlie that question thank you for that first and foremost um yeah you know we've been invited to we've given some presentations to help professions trainees um we've we've we've some talks to to residents to trainees in the speech language pathology program occupational therapy physical therapy programs um there's been a lot of a lot of interest even you know outside of Vermont um medical trainees programs wanting to wanting to learn about neuro inclusive healthcare because I think that um you know medical education does value cultural competency it's just that often like this is not recognized as an area of cultural competency um and um I I think it's it's a a lot of you know when you're when you're taught when you're taught a certain way and those neural pathways are like over rehearsed and over rehearsed and over rehearsed it's just a lot of unlearning but we've been really we've been really pleased to see how open um how open people how open professionals a lot of professionals are to learning um particularly in the context of of kind of seeing where where traditional um or things aren't working so like you can't you can't when when there's a gap between what someone's anyway I guess like when when um maybe a better way to answer that question is you know like when I do trainings for healthcare providers and and like you know including like when I've given talks at UVM to just about specifically about UVM like I I I talk about neuro inclusion um so how do you create healthcare spaces where people with all types of brains can get their needs met um it's not about like it's not about like you're doing it wrong um though uh more recently I've been playing clips from brain club panels um to professional audiences because like the patients are allowed to say that you're doing it wrong that is a different um a different way of delivering that than if um you know anyway because you know when when I think when anyone you know this is certainly the case for me when like someone brings to my attention that like the impact I'm intending to have is like not happening or in like the opposite's happening or something like I gotta reckon with that in some way um so I think that's what that's what it's kind of like to name the thing in professional healthcare circles is like people really do want want their patients to be healthy and they really do want people to feel like they're having good experiences and that they're like they feel like they feel included and um it's it's it's that there may be again it's like the system it's like the system that is is the villain here and like individual people I think are like really really open to learning and collaborating so that's the that's my really long-winded answer to your question so anyway um whether yeah this year said so many systemic obstacles to providing quality and accessible care yeah right so Sierra like that that that's that's a good point like so so it's actually really hard to do parallel play with the healthcare system um so like including like we would really like to be able to do more here like we'd be able we'd love to be able to draw blood in the office so people don't have to go to the hospital and we'd love to be able to do reproductive health like we're trained to do these things but we don't have like we don't have the right exam table and the right exam table is seven thousand dollars so it's like these it's this like conflicting access needs of like really wanting wanting to wanting to do the thing um and to do it well and to meet the people's needs and like it's but it really is I think I think maybe the one missing point to your question Jill is that um I felt like I really had to break free from the restrictions of a traditional environment in order to do the things that the people need because the system works everyone yeah Liz to your point about finding medical professionals who are already disillusioned by the system and yeah great I mean that that that is generally like I mean anyway we we've um you know the the the healthcare professionals that have connected with our village um you know that's they can see it they can see that the status quo is not working and so with that um thank you all so much for being here thank you for being part of our community whether you've been part of our community for two years or this is your first time meeting us we're really glad that you're here and everyone in between and I'll also I'll also put in the chat um you know if you'd like to learn more hold on got got more connected um with all Brits belong whether you know as a volunteer or receive services or learn about more of our community programs just there's a bunch of things linked on the get connected page and then also to let you know um because this is the last week of the month so if you're here to bring club every month we have a different theme um so I'm going to share screen so uh if you like tonight we've got a whole month uh that's kind of like tonight um so I'll be different of course but um it's we did this last December also brain club greatest hits will be revisiting four of the most salient themes of 2023 and brain club and smushing them all together um and then we'd love to invite you we have an upcoming uh free community event called virtual New Year's Eve celebration on New Year's Eve um where we'll have a special New Year's Eve brain club um and some breakout rooms with parallel play for for all ages um and even some live music so thanks to look forward to for December so thank you all so much have a good night and we'll see you next week bye