Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Molly Taylor
12:15PM

Present: Barbara Fields, Argentina Glasgow, Molly Taylor

It worked out timing wise really well; won’t be a problem to get away for a few days.

What’s your impression of what’s going to be happening at this meeting?

M: From my idealistic envisioning process, a small group of young and incredibly motivated people coming together for an intense networking, brainstorming, problem solving session with themselves, also ready to take the mentorship of the AGNT group and any other wisdom that might be there.

B: This is the most diverse representation in terms of well roundedness. You are the only one bringing in a voice about the future of wellness, healthcare, etc. Others are covering environment, education, kids at risk, technology. You have a singular position in terms of what you bring in your area of medicine and wellness, especially the integrative approach. You will be asked to map out your viewpoint and the state of your own field, where you hope it will go and what you’re doing etc.

M: The timing is incredible from Dartmouth’s perspective because we are starting to form a committee interested in forming the new integrative center. Trying to visualize what it’s going to look like. In the process we’re doing a lot of talking to others who have been down this road before, what’s the latest and greatest in integrative practice. This summer in Madison, I learned mostly from others in the community about what’s most important if you’re going to actually heal someone vs. just giving them pills. There’s a big shift toward a more holistic, integrative approach. Everyone’s trying to figure out how these practices are going to fit in to the very traditional model of allopathic medicine.

B: What you’re addressing is a core challenge. Because you will help institute/implement and carry out this kind of hybrid practice, it will directly affect young doctors coming into the field now. Do you have a lot of peer support, or working mostly with our generation?

M: I’m trying to get a hang of the smaller network of students and young doctors, but it is mostly older physicians or people who have a lot of experience with the health care field, figuring out what hasn’t been working. A lot of trial and error, to see what happens.

B: In this meeting you’ll be sitting with very gifted peers, not necessarily in your field, but together you’ll form a whole organism. With their networking and input, what would benefit you the most?

M: What I’m bringing on paper seems incredibly specific/specialized. But everyone there has some concept of personal health/their own health. Talking to others who are articulate and motivated about how we can push this movement beyond the tipping point; everyone will have an opinion about their own health and what works.

B: They are also coming from a meta-perspective; a view that we can do a lot better in terms of an integrated social order in different fields. A kind of picture will emerge that will be very enlightening in terms of what you do next. We could even document it…send you back with a document, statement, petition, something that gives your group a sense of what this generation is looking for. Would that be helpful?

M: Yeah, definitely. This group is in such a rare position of open-mindedness- willingness to act- and a piece of substance will help keep the ball rolling.

B: Thoughts about how coordinating well with other networks will serve the rest of the world?

M: The piece I keep seeing as important is not losing the impact of having the leadership council there in a serious mentorship role. Whenever young people have these giant network tools of communicating, then given the state of our generation the message will get out there. This mentorship piece is what’s going to be different about this meeting.

B: I wonder; what is it that we actually do have to offer you guys? What will be helpful?

M: Intergenerational dialogue is where incredible ideas and action items really come from.

B: Can it help launch you into a faster path of where you want to go? Contacts, experience, bringing the voice of this group to the kind of level that Rev. Michael has.

Argentina: I always look at it from a spiritual place; that we’re willing to wake up and change and get up and take action. Move the world forward on a more positive angle. We each have our own personalities, some are more vocal.

B: Each one of our guests has a deep sense of spirituality that might not be translated into a religious system; but still infuses all the choices and decisions they make. We should take a direct look at that and how we envision our spiritual foundation and how it affects the direction we take in our lives.

M: It’s at the center of what nobody really wants to talk about in medicine….it’s really the central point.

A: I’m alive because I listen to my inner spirit…

B: Each of you has to have a way to have the discussion that not everybody is comfortable having in their specialized area; you know it’s relevant in your work. How can you help each other get to that point of being able to have that discussion?

A; What you’re bringing to the table: your willingness to be out there, utilize what is being put on the stage now.

M: A new sense of transparency about our work and motivations. That could be a cornerstone for this now generation taking over the reigns of society. What would it be like if everything became transparent?