Empathy Over Shame: What the SLP Praxis Fallout Reveals About Our Field

5:02AM Aug 6, 2025

Speakers:

Jeanette Benigas

Preston Lewis

Delta Jingle - We Love to Fly and it Shows - 1987

Keywords:

Empathy

speech language pathology

ETS decision

advocacy

professional development

CMS crisis

DEI issues

CCC renewal

Asha

Fix SLP

clinician support

online comments

mental health

professional autonomy

advocacy work.

Jen,

Welcome to the fix SLP summer school series where we're schooling the system all summer long. If you're ready to challenge the status quo in speech language pathology, you're in the right place. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and if something fires you up, leave us a message on the minivan meltdown line at fixslp.com, grab your favorite summer beverage and let's get to work!

Hello again. Fellow fixers. Preston Lewis, joining you today, I am, of course, in conversation with Dr Jeanette Benigas As we are navigating through the back half of the summer and the short strokes now as we head into the fall, I can't wait to get to that weather. Jeanette, it's great to be in conversation with you, and I think you might have another podcast review for us today.

Yeah, this one's from RunningJess. It says I can't thank the Fix SLP team enough for this podcast and movement. They take time to research issues on our behalf and give clear pathways on how to advocate for ourselves, from podcasts to social media, the information you receive is so valuable. ASHA better sleep with one eye open. These amazing professionals know how to find answers, and they bring the documentation and proof it will take all of us to solve the big national issues. They give us a way to embrace our autonomy and help move in the right direction. Thank you for helping all of us get clear on our vision. Thanks. Jess, isn't that nice? Yeah, so she submitted that as part of our on our way to 100k downloads. We will be announcing another winner in this episode. If you're listening to this on the day that this podcast comes out, we will be dropping this week's contest later this afternoon. It will close Sunday, 11:59pm Eastern, and we'll announce this week's winner next week on the podcast. We're going all the way through September. You can also play bingo all summer long. In September, you can hand in your card and qualify to be entered to win a free year of professional development from Speech Therapy. PD, and we're thankful to them for donating that. What do we got on the plate today Preston?

Well, I thought we talked first about empathy, or a lack of it that's out there. And then I'd like to visit a little bit about what we can do to support our fellow clinicians, either those that are coming into the field, or maybe colleagues that we haven't gotten in touch with in a while. And then as we get into the back half of the show, we're going to talk about that six month decision timeframe, because I had to have Jeanette prompt me this morning about we are now six months away from January 31st.

The fake deadline

Yes

Or the real deadline.

But first today, this this topic of empathy Jeanette, and we are fresh off of the heels of the ETS decision, which impacted 180 future SLPs perspectives. And we talked about this on the last episode, but I really we got into the group chat last night with the fellow fixers. And I was just incredulous as we continue to read these very I called them last week fangy comments from people who are just ready to convict all 180 of these folks, including 155 which have a test window, I think of what three months Jeanette, where they can come back?

Yep. Three months, October 18, 2025.

Yeah. I just wonder, what does it take, perhaps, with the nature of online comments, some of them which are anonymous, maybe, maybe there is no solution. But what would it take for us to have more empathy? What level of despair do we have to see before we can actually look beyond some of our pointed comments to just blanketly call all of these people cheaters, and then start talking about how this young generation is just so devoid of any ethics. Imagine for a moment, and this is horrific to think about that. You are somebody who has just finished college. You probably took out student loans that you're wondering when, if ever, you're going to get out from underneath it. You're looking at the high cost of housing, you're looking at the job market. You're looking at the stagnant wages that are out there, but you've managed to work your way through college. You just took this board examination. You most likely passed your comps test within your program, which is often even harder than the Praxis. And you might have a job lined up. You might have signed a new lease on an apartment, and you get this cryptic letter that almost looks like a hoax when we first saw it, saying you. Scores have been canceled. They have this is being reported to your state licensing board. Obviously, ASHA is now aware of this. I wonder, is it going to take and this is dark to think about, but in order to see more empathy out there within our profession, is it going to take a prospective clinician overdosing on pills and being at that mental breaking point of something like this, pushing them over the edge. Thank God, I've not heard anything like this, but it does make me think, and more than anything, now that we're through the pandemic, are we checking in with people? Are we treating people like humans? Are we considering maybe that some people are hanging by a thread? Now I am not speaking directly to the people who very much modeled this document and put life into this. Jeanette and I have seen the study guide as it's labeled. There are some issues that we have with that. I think those can be fleshed out in another conversation, but I'm talking about those people that simply opened an email that they got from a colleague maybe a day before this test. Took one glance at it and thought, you know, I've already studied, I've already done the practice guides. Thanks for sending this to me. And they opened it, and then they went about their way. And now, not only are they three months delayed into going into their profession and perhaps losing a job opportunity, perhaps having to delay a lease, perhaps having to stay at home with their parents for a little bit longer, and feeling that failure to launch, but if, as if that wasn't bad enough, they have this profession that's got this fanginess out there to call them cheaters and to just blanket them in with a whole cohort that they see as unethical. Jeanette, where is the empathy? Where? Where's that human component? Aren't we supposed to be caregivers?

Yeah, we are. There are people who agree with what we're talking about. You know that? Let's give them a chance. Let's let this document and the metadata speak the truth which hasn't been looked at. The situation was dealt with via statistics and statisticians. This is the world we live in. It's not just SLP, it is the world we live in. People are so quick to jump and judge, and this is a situation where we really should be entering it with an open mind. And I'll admit, I jumped from when I read it. I was like, Oh yeah, give them what they deserve. But then you kind of have to step back and take a look at the facts of what has gone on and really just understand that it is these are people who didn't make a mistake. Yes, there are people in the 180 who did make a mistake. That is a different conversation, but there are quite a few people, and I have now talked to a good handful of them, one on one, who didn't make a mistake. They were shared something that said study guide. Or even I've talked to a couple people who say they never even opened it that they were invited via email. Someone had to have put their email into the share function, and it was emailed to them, according to them, they never opened it that will speak the truth in the metadata. Why would they lie about that? Why would people say I never opened it when they know that ETS can see if they did that. Tells me all ETS did was look at the list of people whose emails had been added they didn't look at the metadata to see who did what in terms of opening and time spent. I guarantee you, there is a solid handful of people that opened it scrolled to the second or third page where you could actually see what the document was about, because the first page was blank. All it said was July. And then closed it, and the metadata would show that in the seconds of time spent, there are timestamps that can be seen by an administrator, and for sure ETS has that information, or they wouldn't have come down with these sanctions. But they didn't do that. They used statistics, and we need to give them a chance.

Absolutely. But I can't understand, or at least I can identify with ETs having this Cold Embrace as this private contractor. I mean, expecting them to have empathy would be like, you know, asking that of United Healthcare or Humana, or, you know, Frontier Airlines, for, you know, harassing you about the bag that you think is small enough to bring on the plane. These are the things we've come to accept in corporate America. Yeah, but within our profession, and I suppose my question is this, how much of this fanginess and negativity that is coming from SLPs? Because, let's face it, if you are, you know, on Instagram and a social media board pertaining to SLPs, or on a Reddit thread you know, you didn't get there just because you are casually a general troll in the web sphere. You were there because you were an SLP, so while some of these comments are certainly coming from an anonymous place and speak about the nature of online negativity that's out there, they aren't coming from people in the profession. So I want to know the root of that. I have to think it has a lot to do with the state of our profession, the stagnancy and the stress that's out there. But it's manifesting itself is just this viciousness turn on your fellow clinician, and yet some of the same people that have that mentality are perfectly willing to apologize about Big Daddy ASHA, so I'm lost as to the psychology right now of our profession, Jeanette, but I also don't think that this is new. I think I felt a little bit of this even when I was going through my graduate experience. Do you have any thoughts on that, Jeanette, what is this? Why do we turn on each other so easily in this profession?

I have to wonder if some of that is related to the demographics of how our profession is made up, which is largely women. Women are mean to each other. This is a conversation that I've seen across many platforms, in many different areas of our field and even outside of our field. Why are we mean to each other? Why aren't we lifting each other up? Why aren't we supportive? We'll be supportive of our own group, but if you're outside of our group, forget it. And in this case, we are all in the same group. We are all SLPs. But now the divide is young SLPs versus seasoned SLPs, or people with the CCC or license versus the people trying to get into the club. Why are women like that? I don't know. I don't know the psychology behind that. I don't know when that started. I don't know when it got worse, but I know women are mean to each other. If you're a woman listening to this, I'm sure you can identify a time when something like this has happened to you. No, it maybe wasn't part of a cheating scandal, but you moved to a new town and couldn't be included. You started going to a new place of worship, and even there weren't included. You started a mommy and me group, and you weren't included. You know that the list goes on and on. You didn't get into the sorority you wanted to get into because somebody didn't like you during rush. You know what I mean? Like the list goes on. Why are women like this to each other? I do not know, but it's a thing.

One of the topics we talked about before we went on today and recorded this podcast were the number of certifications that are out there beyond just the certificate of clinical competence, Jeanette was dropping several acronyms to me before the podcast, and I will admit I'm Preston. I carry a license from a bespa in Arkansas to practice speech language pathology. I have a master's degree. I have vital stem certification, and I am trained with synchrony, I think, which is what company it's all of a sudden escaping me, the modality company anyway. Other than that, there's really nothing else that I carry there, and I can't even remember what one of them is. So while certifications and training, all of those things are great, Jeanette was challenging before the podcast, and we kind of laughed. And she said, Well, you don't, you don't know this one, dysphagia, you know, protocol. And I said, No. I said, all I do is, you know, I've just transitioned over a dozen people in my career from being NPO to having no diet restrictions and going back to eating and drinking again. She said, Well, how the hell did you do that? And it Jeanette, I'm kind of telling on our conversation, but it was fun and it was it was lighthearted, but I started to lay down some of the things that I did, and you said, Oh, okay, well, I guess that worked, you know. And ultimately, as a clinician, and I will freely admit, coming out of my graduate school experience, I you know, and I read these things from people that say I have no idea what I'm doing, and that's okay, because there are a lot of us that are going to get out there and suddenly realize there is the academic way that this profession is taught. There. Is the sort of literary way that it's taught from papers from ASHA and things of that nature. And then there's the practicality of treating in the public school or treating in the skilled nursing facility. And so we find the things that like, Gee, that is not going to work here because of this. And so I need to practice differently. My patients aren't going to sit here and do this many exercises for something, or my facility is not going to let me go retest this person multiple times for their swallow. They're only going to allow me to have them tested twice in six months. Whatever the case may be, you've learned those different ways to do this, and then eventually you say, Okay, this is working. I have transitioned over a dozen people in a short amount of time back to a PO diet. And I didn't get the certifications, but I took the skills that I had, I took the offerings of tools that are out there and applied them. And so I bring this all back to saying that for the clinicians. And I'm kidding around the Jeanette today, but I've had some people say, well, didn't you go get this certification, do this? No, I just did this. And sometimes there's just a kind of a, I'm trying to think of a nice word, but there's just a cattiness about this and, and I don't think it's necessarily just gender based. I bumped into some male SLPs before that. Have you know, also kind of sneered at it. I am, guess I'm one of those people in the profession that's not defined by the letters after my name or the courses that I signed up for. I would rather define myself on the impacts of the patients that I worked on, and the success stories that came from that, and the cards and letters that I got that said, you know, this made a difference. What? Why are you? You're looking at me with your, oh, you're yawning. Okay, I was yawning because it's the devil's out. Yeah, I know I woke you up early for this, but it's, great to celebrate all those letters and courses, and there's nothing against all of that, but it goes back to the central question of why we're so eager to build walls in this profession. And I think it has to. It kind of goes back to the fact that we all seemingly first start out with three letters after our name, and it's like, well, if you're not part of this club, you're not even competent, for crying out loud. And you know, well, congratulations, you spent $250 a year to continue to declare your competence. Otherwise, you have to go back and take a test. This is, I think, that begins with that culture, but I think it permeates and passes on from generation to generation. So that leads me into what can we do to support our fellow clinicians? And I think the first thing is we learn from this right now and say that, you know, I'm not going to listen to what I heard from my friends saying that all these students today are just so over reliant on AI they don't know what the hell they're doing. They're just floating through these graduate programs and learning nothing that's that's a lot of hearsay, and frankly, some of them may be using AI as a tool that, wow, we wish we might have had that could have taken clinicians that were a bit raw and give them more tools in an early time, I guess, to say, first of all, let's not just make an assumption about a different cohort of prospective clinicians that we haven't met, that we haven't talked to. If you've talked to these people, if you've been part of a graduate program, perhaps as a teacher, and you're saying, Yes, I have no idea what these kids are doing, then maybe you can speak with it with some legitimacy. But if you've been out in the field for 20 years and you say, Gee, I hear these kids are worthless. Wow, you're stop being an asshole. You know why? You know? I mean, what? What are you saying? Is that you know you were better than these people? I'm not. I'm not saying I'm better. I was pretty out there, you know? I was thinking, God, what the hell was I doing? And I figured it out. But it wouldn't have helped if I'd had a seasoned clinician of 15 years come along and just say, Yeah, you're you're unethical, you're an idiot. You don't build from that.

Yeah, I think there is this culture of meanness too, because for some of these seasoned clinicians, and we've seen this on social media, it's that mindset of, I had to struggle so you should too. It's almost like a hazing mentality that shows up, especially when someone tries to question like tradition or a new pathway. It's like a trauma response disguised as professionalism. I think it's also a projection of insecurity. So we hear the term impact. Imposter syndrome a lot. It's a real thing. Many clinicians aren't secure in their knowledge and their position. So you know, when someone challenges the status quo or finds a new way, it ends up seeming like a personal attack, so they attack back. There is also a huge lack of safe space for honest conversation in our field. Our field has not made room for healthy disagreement. We have been conditioned and trait. We have been conditioned and trained to nod, comply and keep the peace. So when conflict happens, sometimes I see it explode rather than get processed constructively. I see that a lot in our comment section, someone won't like what we've said, and I will make a reply, or someone will make a reply that isn't received well by the reader. And I think there's some element of you end up reading things with the pragmatic response that you have already. So if you're on defense, you're going to read the comment as defensive. You know, the the Prag, the pragmatic interaction, the tone of voice, the the kindness or the softness or the opposite, is lacking, so it's left for interpretation. And you know this happened in our comment section yesterday, where someone was constantly attacking this group of 155 and I called it out, not nicely or with aggression, I stated the facts. This is what they should be allowed. This is what these are the laws and protections that these people should be afforded, especially since every other step of the process to become an SLP includes those things. So why would we eliminate those protections in this final step? And the person kept going hard on every every single comment, and I commented back, you keep circling back to this, but you're missing the point. And the person came back with, I don't appreciate your condescending tone. I don't appreciate, I can't support a movement that many, many, many people find misinformed and immature, and I'm done. And then she stopped. She blocked us. Cool, yeah, but that wasn't the tone of my response. The tone of my response was, look, this is matter of fact. I'm not for or against. There are people who did things that were wrong, there were people who did things that weren't wrong, and they at least deserve the chance to be heard, just like if they cheat in grad school. There is a process. There is an appeals process. If a program does something wrong, there is a process. There is an appeals process. There is a process. Every single step of the way that programs have to prove to the CIA for accreditation that we have an ethics complaint is filed against us every step of the way for this profession, with everything for as much as we hate ASHA, or as much as we come down on ASHA from this movement, at least they have these protections in place for a fair advantage and a second look. And in this case, that didn't happen, and a lot of people like you said are just quick to judge and quick to be mean, and there's no safe space for us to even talk about it.

Yeah. Well, and they save enough bullets in the chamber there to then start, you know, firing at them at firing them at us. And at Fix SLP, which, you know, it's if we are an organization that is built to uplift clinicians and to inform and to support, then, why wouldn't we try to offer a form of support for some that we feel are really in the crosshairs here, that are really struggling profoundly, perhaps only because they opened an email, they clicked on a link from a friend there, you know, for the people that we keep saying it, just to reiterate it, because people say, Well, I guess they're supporting cheaters. They've gone so rogue that they're, you know, now, just helping people get into the profession without any, you know, standards whatsoever. Well, hell no. I mean, what a preposterous thing to say. And so we've. We've already said, you know that... that disciplinary action that includes a two year? Is it two or three years? It's two, I believe, weight on their test. I mean that that's certainly deserved, absolutely. But for those people out there that are right now struggling so much to say that, well, they're also cheaters, and you guys are enabling this. That's, that's when, you know, you get people that are just shoot the messenger or fire all the guns around everybody, and it's just this circular firing squad for them. But back to the subject of supporting clinicians. I go back to the times where I was never an official supervisor. I had a couple of students that were sort of handed to me by a couple of SLPs that were having difficulty. And said, Hey, will you just kind of mentor this person for a little while? And I did, and I go back to this is going to sound a little cheesy, but I often draw back to this Jeanette for strength, an industry also that has lost its sense of compassion. Come as no surprise is the airline industry. It's known to be cold and impersonal, and there's this old commercial we may even have to dig it out for Delta Airlines that was back in the late 1980s and this cute little jingle that went with it, Delta, we love to fly, and It shows

(music) A smile, a tone of voice, the ability to do it and a willingness to try. When you love to fly, it shows...

But there's a line in one of those commercials that says, "a smile, a tone of voice, the ability to do it, and a willingness to try." Those are the things that I feel I brought to those students that I mentored, just to say, you know, you don't have all the answers right now, and it's okay that you don't, you don't know what to do with this patient, and it's okay because I didn't at one time either. But I will show you what I do. I will let you use some of your own inherent talents. I'll let you try some new things, and you will find your way. And one of the thing about supporting fellow clinicians is I want to tell a quick story as well about a SLP, and I'll just give this person a fictitious name, named Wendy. I came into a job where Wendy was basically getting phased out and I was going to replace her. Wendy was a challenging SLP to work with. She probably had a lot of spectrum, kind of communications, very strange background. There were people that said, I don't know how she even made it through the graduate program, but she was a person that wanted to do better, and at one point, had a conversation with me, Jeanette, and she said, You know, I everybody's telling me I need to leave the field, and I don't know. I think I'm gonna go take a job doing something else. And I said, you know, Wendy, you do have one skill that's outstanding. I said, you're bilingual, and that is huge, especially in some states like Arkansas that has a pretty robust Latino population. I said, find a place that needs evaluations that are for bilingual children, and go pump those evaluations out. I said, you're great at the technical aspect of this. I said they're just challenges when it comes to the day to day communication within a session. But I said, if you can go out there and do evals, especially for a different language population, you're going to be a very busy clinician. So that's my call to action for all of the clinicians that are out there right now. Rather than just closing yourself off on the wall and just saying, Well, I'm going to be, you know, 90% productive today in my job. And I'm not going to talk to anybody, I'm just going to tell the same spiel about this field. Look for those strengths, for people that are out there, even the ones that you think this is not a good clinician, because chances are, they're going to be good at something. They're going to have a unique skill. So that's that's one thing, and maybe it's been since the pandemic when you've touched gotten in touch with some old colleagues. Now's the best time to do it than ever. Say, how's it going for you in speech language pathology right now? Have you heard of fix? SLP, you can have that conversation with people. But Jeanette, I think, now more than ever, with this testing issue that's come down, the CMS decision, the DEI issues that are out there, all of the challenges that we all have. It's it's now more than ever that we need to stop this hateful firing squad of comments. We need to quit looking for the boogeyman and every clinician and just come out and try to support each other. Because in the end, we define the profession, not ASHA, not ETS, not one series of students that came through in a test.

I think that this is the first time that Fix SLP has really had the opportunity to show what we're here for, outside of gaining autonomy back from ASHA. You know, we have the CMS situation that involves a government agency and is going to be difficult to fix. We have to address it at the state level through legislation. It is going to take a long time, but this particular issue is a lot easier because we are dealing with a private organization and legal precedent, and I've seen comments like, stick to the topics you're here for, or stop supporting people who cheated or there was one person who made a rude comment on Facebook, we see everything. By the way, you post something in a private group that we're not in, people send us screenshots.

I get those screenshots at two in the morning from Jeanette.

Yeah. We saw a comment in a group I was actually privately in, so I was going to respond where someone said, "Fix SLP is blowing this out of proportion. It's not as bad as it seems." I recognized the picture as someone I responded to on Instagram, so then I went over to Instagram. Sure enough, it was the same person, and on our our feed, they made a completely opposite statement. So anyway, all of that to say this is the first time, despite our critics or despite why people think we are here, that we have the ability to show why we are actually here. ASHA is only a part of this. And so if you don't believe me, on August 1 2022 so the day I'm reading this, this will be in just a few days, I will hit the three year anniversary of this. By the time you hear this, it will be a two a few days after. But on August 1 2022 I made a couple of posts online on my account that I started first called Med SLP Advocate. I had an idea and a dream for this field. It has grown into that plus more, and I am lucky every day that I get to be a part of this. But I was thinking small, and it became big. If you want to go look at it, the handle on Instagram is med SLP advocate. It is the second pin post. It's purple and slide four says, I'm tired of hearing we are ASHA. I have always felt a deep sense of justice for the people we serve. That feeling is what led me to a doctoral degree. I was tired of watching my patients with dementia be forced to drink cement, fruit punch in the sniff without any other options back then, there were none. It's what we did, and nothing changes. Over the last year, I have been observing medical SLPs come together to advocate for important issues, but I noticed one thing, there isn't a place for us to come together. There are a ton of people who care and repost, but no central place for organization and information distribution. Enter the Med SLP Advocate. I don't know about you, but I barely know about the advocacy issues in my own state, let alone five states over. And I will take action on an issue if it's easy, but not go out of my way to figure it out. And then I said, so stick around. This post is too long. Tomorrow you can find out what to expect. And then in the next post, I said, I want to make your advocacy work known. There are so many issues that need to be advocated for. Did you think I was going to take all of that on? Nope. Well, maybe some of it. I want to highlight the rock stars in med SLP who are doing the damn thing. How will I do that? A podcast? IG, content, dispersing action items that make it easy for our colleagues to get involved, calls to action on big issues that impact a lot of us. I have a big dream, and then I said, Look, I don't have the tech skills, and I imagine I don't currently have the money because I'm a med SLP, in a situation where reimbursement is going down, cost of living is rising, and I swear, I lose money by being a professor. Maybe those are issues for another day, but I have a dream. Of an interactive website, guys, that's coming out in the fall. I didn't write that there. I'm just saying we have that coming in the fall. Med SLP's one stop shop for advocacy issues we care about that could include. And then I list what our website is going to have. I said I have 972 jobs. None of this is happening today, but I'm working on it one step at a time. I'll probably need help. Where are my state advocacy people? I hope you'll stick around with me, because it's time for a change. ASHA says there is only so much we can do. Fine. We'll do it ourselves. And so I think that this is what we're doing. We're showing you through this issue that we are dispersing information. We are an organization that is actively collecting information from watchdogs who are remaining anonymous from the people who have been affected by this, and we are spending our time, by the way, for free, combing through these documents, putting together a spreadsheet to look at patterns, asking follow up questions, sending the information to Lawyers, plural lawyers, who we are paying to look at this on behalf of the people affected. And you know what? If those lawyers come back and say, You know what, there's absolutely nothing that can be done, then we'll let you all know when we're done here. And this is our chance to show you what we can do. It's not just attacking ASHA. It is helping the clinicians in our field collect information and then dispersing it to the field appropriately so action can be taken.

Well, I'm going to push back on something though, that you said, which is, you know, if we hear back from legal counsel, you know this, this can't be done, but then we're done here. No, we're not done, and I know that you met with that issue, yeah, yeah, but that's the thing we're continuing to encourage people, is to let's reach out and have a conversation about the challenges that you have in your field. And we're hearing more and more from people who have been ignored and felt like they had no agency. There are things that we can do. We still have nine jurisdictions in this country that are requiring a certificate that they've confused or a license in order to build Medicaid, which is like, you know, next well over Medicare, that is our number one reimbursement method, and we are not going to stop just based on, you know, if a lawyer says we can do X, Y, Z, we're going to flip it like we flipped it in Michigan, like we flipped it or clarified it in Arkansas. We have shown that we can do this. We will do this, and we will speak up for the clinicians who are marginalized and who have been silenced because they need to be heard from, if for no other reason, we want them in the field. And that was something that Jeanette and I talked about since the first time I was on this podcast. One of the things that hurts me the most is when I think about some of the clinicians who were outstanding, who have left the profession, that is a that kills me, because I think, wow, that person was one of the best that I knew, and now they're selling real estate, and there's nothing against real estate, and they're making more money. And I'm happy for that person, but I think, wow, they impacted lives in such a profound way. If you want to leave the field because you feel like there are better opportunities, or it fulfills more of your needs, that those are great reasons to do it. But if you leave the field because you feel like you're at a dead end, then that's a tragedy. That's that's a field and a profession that has let you down, and we don't want to let you down. We want to hear from you, if you, if you're that clinician like Zane in Arkansas, and you've, you've been told no, because you walked away for a while, and you know there are gatekeepers that are throwing stones up in your path. Let us know. Jeanette and I have pretty good shovels, and we like to dig, and we like to forge new roads, and so that's, that's why we're here, and I'm, I'm honored to do that. And one of the other things that I think, as we head into another season that I'm going to do, and it's this is going to be fun, and I don't know if they'll get any responses, to start inviting people from other perspectives on this podcast, and that's going to be a role change for myself. I get to feel like I'm back in my broadcast days and play the role of moderator, and I think it'll lead to some great conversation to have people come on and debate some of their points of view with you. Jeanette, there is a, you know, there's an establishment out there that's very vocal and likes to throw. Stones at us. Come on inside. Have a conversation with us. I will moderate that debate. I have a background in broadcasting and background in politics. I can do that objectively. And if you feel like your points of view are needed to be heard, or you feel like we're reckless or sensationalist, come talk to us. Let's have an open conversation. And I'm starting to send out some of those invitations. Some of you that are closet listeners to Fix SLP, you might check your email box. We'd like to hear from you.

You know, Preston, we've done that before. I don't know if it was before you were a part of fix. It was okay. This is a great time for me to point out, point it out, and I'll link it up too, because a friend actually pointed it out to me the other day, and she said it's one of her favorite episodes, because it does show the other side, and it was a very productive, safe conversation for both me and the other person on that episode from May 20, 2024, the title is, I'm not dropping the CCC, and here's why, and we'll link that up. But Dr AC Goldberg and I, he is the owner of transplaining, which does incredible things. He also owns the credit Institute, which puts out incredible continuing education. I had him on and we talked about why he's keeping the CCC and it Preston used the word debate and moderate. We didn't debate and we didn't need a moderator. We were able to have a safe conversation between friends. We were friends before, we were friends during, and we are still friends from opposite sides of the spectrum, where I have one opinion, he has the other. We can respect each other's decisions and opinions and have a really safe conversation about it and support one another too. Just because we disagree doesn't mean we can't support each other and the work that we're both doing to make changes in this field in a different way. Everybody's attempt is valuable. We need change from the inside. We need change from the outside. We need change from around. We need change from every corner, every angle. And it's not my team, your team. There is a place for all of us and a place for all of us to come together, but it has to be done in respect and love, and frankly, if people don't like what we are doing and they make comments in our comment section, we're gonna snap back and defend ourselves. We're not being mean, but it's our platform. If you don't like it, go do it yourself. See your way out and do it better, but we have a mission, and it's okay to engage in conversation with us, but if you attack that is not a safe space for us to have this conversation with you. And so I love that Preston is starting to send out invitations, because we've done it before. It was a very well received episode, probably in our top 10 most listened episodes. So again, I'll link it up, but we want to do more of that.

The invoices they're starting to land six months

You got a warning!

The clock is ticking.

You can never do these things again. Lies. So yesterday, a fearless picture sent us another invoice from ASHA, another warning that they are in danger. They didn't fill out their certification, maintenance attestation. They didn't pay the money. This is your final warning. I bet you it's not, show me. Show me your paper. That's you. It's not. This is your final warning. You'll never be able to say you hold the CCC again.

I got a warning the other day.

Fear! Fear! Fear! Fear!

I got a warning the other day because, you know, I'm now outside the box, and I might have mailed it back. And we are at that six month Look forward to the next deadline of I think it's January 31 right?

Yeah, so the invoices that just went out again, it's another round, another warning to the people who did not renew membership or the CCC, you might not all get them. Some of you are getting them, but just yet another warning, more money, another mass mail from ASHA to instill fear that your your life, your livelihood and everything about you is in danger if you don't pay them the money to renew the CCC or. Your membership, those just went out. We are expecting the 2026 renewal forms to come out sometime between September 1 and the end of September. The years that they send those out vary. So two months from now, within eight weeks you have will received your 2026 renewal notice. The deadline for that is always the end of the year, December 31 then they have this grace period through January. The end of January. January 31 is always the final deadline. The grace period this last year, because so many of you were dropping the CCC and membership, they actually turned that grace period into their real deadline that they started advertising because you had to call to make these scary, permanent changes to your status, and they just could not keep up with the volume of calls they were getting. So that January 31 date has, and always was, the end of the grace period where you're not paying a late fee. That's about six months away. And a lot has happened this year, hasn't it Preston?

It has. And I think that it might be a good time. I love a good cartoon, and I love a good flow chart. And perhaps, as we get a little closer, we can have decision points for fixers out there, and you can, you know, make your decisions about what you want to do everything from I'm going to continue forward because I feel like I can't make a change right now because of my employer, or because of, you know, different rules, or maybe you just like getting the leader, which is great. You have those choices. You have those options, but then, you know, they're always we had a lot of people this past year which dropped membership and went to maintaining their Cs only. Or you can join that fun new club and set that thing on fire and send us a video burn your CCC card as I did, what a 1960s move that was. And so, yeah, that'd be kind of fun. Have a little flow chart, show a little cartoon. SLP, setting the thing on fire or, you know, just saying, No, you know, I I'm not, I'm not paying for my token membership price, which is not reflective of really what goes into that. It's a loss leader. Yeah, I think, do we have anybody? I mean, I am a terrible artist, but if we have any fixers out there that have good cartoonist skills, go to the website, email us. We'd love to hear from you.

We'll take your stuff.

Well, we would, we would love to celebrate your gift as a fellow fixer, and that could be helping us out. We'll even give you some notoriety on it.

We'll send you a sticker.

We do more than that.

I'll kiss the envelope with some red lipstick.

We still have some. We've got some good Fix SLP swag that comes in. So...

I'll pay you the same way I pay the team with colorful monopoly dollars. There are so many layers to that word monopoly, but also fake money, but also anyway. It's this is your call to action time, folks. You've got six months to make changes. Assess if you are happy with the direction ASHA has gone this year. Do you like what they did with dei Are you happy about their response to the CMS crisis? Now we've got this ETS thing, I'm sure. You know we got oral motor people out there who are raging because every single one of their presentations has been barred from the upcoming convention. Has ASHA supported you? Did you get your money's worth? Are you ready to step away that might take some action. We need action. We've got six months. We have overturned Medicaid policies in less time than that. Preston mentioned that there are nine jurisdictions we still have to work on. We need leaders. We don't need you to do the work, but we need leaders. If you are in a Medicaid state, states at fix slp.com, send us an email. We will collaborate. We've got a template. We will work with you. We need leaders. We can't do it ourselves. I said that in my post from three years ago. Can't do it alone, but we're here to help if you want to walk away by January 31 2024, today is your day to start making that path for yourself and your colleagues. That's it. Gotta make a way. Might need to educate in Ohio. We just had this conversation in an Ohio group, somebody said something, and I got, I jumped in, and, you know, we all answered the question. I was like, by the way, the only group in Ohio, or the only barrier we have in Ohio, is our employer, if you just want to let that CCC go complete. Lee, talk to your employer. You might not need it, or they might need some education. I'll help reach out. You know what? What do you need to do today? Preston's laughing at me.

I am and I was also thinking, you know, you come to a fork in the road, you take the fork. That's an old Yogi berraism from a beloved figure in baseball. But no, it is. It's time to it's time to evaluate those things and to decide what little you know, change you will be part of, or you could be part of the big change. But it's, you know, we are here to communicate with you. We're not just a one way mouthpiece. Just the other day, I told Jeanette, I said, put my email address on the on the profile page, so if you want to know about the, you know, regulations in your state, and you want to, you know, make contact with the state representative, send me an email, tell me who you know there. I'll look in the regulation and we will paint that pathway forward to you. You know, it's hard, because I think one of the frustrating things from this year is, you know, it's like that old Kris Kristofferson song, don't let the bastards get you down. And there's a lot of that out there, whether you're dealing with, you know, things that government throws our way. But also, we had a fixer that wanted to get involved with one of our state teams who was run off by somebody who was a pretty hateful person that doesn't like Fix SLP. And you know that's the thing, is that you know that fear that comes down there, and we know who this person is. And one of these days, I think I'm gonna reach out to him and say, Hey, not cool, not cool, but I'll pick the right time. But you know, it's, don't let those people. Don't let them be. Don't let them be the barriers to you having a profession that can grow and feel like that. It has a voice, because it does. It's what we're teaching people.

Yeah, seems like a good time to wrap Preston.

It does Jeanette. It's been great, dragging you out of bed early in the morning and making you record this podcast.

Oh, you guys. I am a zombie or a vampire. I come awake in the middle of the night. My brain is firing on all cylinders. But when Preston this, this is probably the earliest we've ever recorded. Preston did me a favor, because I'll be teaching in Las Vegas, Nevada this week. Uh, traveling.

Bright Lights say they're gonna set my soul. They're gonna set my soul on fire.

Stop this energy is hurting my face. Um, yeah. So we can't record on the two days that typically we would record. And Preston said, I can do it with you at the ass crack of dawn on a Monday, right? I had to set 97 alarms. So anyway, you guys, we've got a prize to give away. I'm gonna put in a random number generator here, and I am gonna pick a number and then go to that list on my spreadsheet.

You thought of this because of my rendition of Elvis Presley Viva Las Vegas?

Yes, that's exactly why.

the prizes, the games the roulette wheel.

Congratulations to Katie on Instagram. Katie sent us a private message because her account is not public, and she posted and tagged three of her friends, and now she gets to pick some swag or some free CEU. So Katie, you have until next week to get with us via email or in that same message where I confirmed that you were entered, you have till next week when we announced the winner. Congratulations. Yeah, I think that's it. Another week. Who knows what's coming this week? Preston, every week, it's something new

I'm ready!

All right, guys, thanks for fixing it!

Thanks for listening to the fix SLP podcast. If this episode help you feel more informed or empowered, take a second to leave a five star rating and review it helps more. SLPs find us fix SLP runs on $5 sustaining partnership donations that small monthly support pays for everything behind the scenes, including our website, legal fees and advocacy work. Want to be a part of it. Join us@fixslp.com enjoy the sunshine. Stay scrappy and we'll see you next time.