Words To Live By 4

"Never talk to Mom without also talking to Dad.  And vice versa."  This has long been a favourite, and I believe original, saying of mine and it is especially effective for me in the work place since in mental health work good team work is so important.  We have different people working in very diverse roles: psychiatrists, social workers, case managers, occupational therapists, recreational therapists, nurses, receptionists, and as in my case, peer support workers, to name many of the people who make up a mental health team.
     The key word here is communication.  Miscommunications happen easily when you have many different people working together and a bad work day can resemble a game of Broken Telephone, where someone whispers a message in the next person's ear, who passes it on to the next person, who passes it on to the next one till, before you know it, the last one reports something that bears absolutely no resemblance to what was originally being said.
     I like the word miscommunication.  I love it, actually.  It covers a multitude of sins.  No one is left on the hook.  Oh, it was a miscommunication.  We are absolved.  No Our Fathers, no Hail Mary's.  What could be easier.  I have become over the years obsessed with good communication, I think to a point where I have perfected it to the point of neurosis and am likely very annoying to people at times, especially when they find themselves feeling that they have to live up to my standard.  Well, it would be nice if they did, or could, but really they don't have to. 
     I like to be sure that all my ducks are in a row.  That everyone who needs to has been informed, that they have received the same information, and that they have interpreted in the same way the same information and that they are going to pass it accurately back and forth to each other and along the professional bush telegraph also known as the continuity of care where confidentiality and professional silence remain stronger than the Vatican Seal.
     Sorry about all the Catholic similes and religious metaphors, but I hold sacred good communication.  There is nothing sexy about being strong and silent.  Especially once they've opened their mouths.