20190426.0430

Earlier in the month, I noted that I was joining the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Professionals group on LinkedIN. Recently, I was accepted into the group; when I was, I was surprised at what I saw.
What I had expected to see were announcements of conferences and jobs open, offerings of training opportunities and announcements of availability for work. I had thought I would see articles written by members discussing--under useful pseudonyms and with other appropriate anonymizations--incidents in clinics and concerns of clients in practice. They are the kinds of things I see, adjusted for discipline and professional focus, in other groups, both on that platform and elsewhere, so they made sense as appearing on the LinkedIN group. And, given the nature of the platform itself, I did expect to see some advertisements interspersed among the other offerings; I understand that the platform has to fund itself.
I did see those things, to be certain. Indeed, the first entry in the group that presented itself to me was a notice of a conference, for which abstracts were soon due. But most of what I saw were advertisements for holistic cures--and not from the platform, but from one member. I have to doubt the identity of said putative member; the activity reads more like a bot posting at high speed than an actual person, even one who is paid to promote a particular website and its offerings. And I have to wonder about the wisdom of making such posts around people who are ostensibly health care professionals; it seems that would be an audience likely to reject out of hand such commentaries, given that professional training in clinical fields usually instills a belief in the superiority of peer-reviewed study over individual assertion.
Then again, I have been disappointed by professionals in the performance of their professions many times, as I have disappointed others in the performance of my own professions. (Clearly, I have, else I'd not have had to change profession as I have.) It may well be that those in the group invite such advertisements, that they respond to them with things other than annoyance and over-passing. (I am not unmoved by advertisements. I am more moved by the fact that I do not have money to spare in addressing them.) It may well be that people whom others seek for their ability to see things are oblivious. And that is a distressing thought, though it is probably more true than is comfortable to consider.