Mapping the Landscape: a Rationale to blog about Emergency Behavioral Health

Welcome to my latest blogging project. This blog will present my ideas about behavioral health crisis response as they develop. In the past I've used blogs to post news item and resources and to collect interesting items for presentation elsewhere; but not this time. Now I am collecting my thoughts after 13+ years of professional crisis response in preparation for a return to graduate school and the leap into the next phase of my career.

The field of emergency behavioral health is broad, making it very easy to get lost without a map. In this blog I will try to create such a map, a visualization or picture, of where the on the web the informational cities are located and what areas are ripe for development. The more I collect and organize my professional library the clearer the vision from the summit of the "big questions".

Over the years blogging has matured tremendously; my style and knowledge of blogging hasn't exactly kept up. To catch up I've surfed a little--according to Urban Dictionary "surf the web" is still a relevant phrase--and read that good writing is the key to getting and keeping readers. Marketing is how readers find what has been written.

So now I'm starting to lose focus from the topic/purpose of this post--staying focused is one of my "growing edges"--and getting caught playing with the language and not the idea. Cleanly stated: The purpose of this post is to talk a little about the challenges of maintaining a blog and what I hope to accomplish with this project.

I will have a job that allows me to travel (and collect commemorative stamp images like those issued through the Eastern National (EN) passport program and sought by the members of the National Park Travelers Club (NPTC)) and assist communities to serve their most vulnerable. All while living in serenity. Its a tall order. But, its time to direct my energies with my talents. For many years I've guided my career and personal choices with the mission "to give back to the community that gave so much to me" as I've adapted to compromise. Now I will take the hard steps to create my future. [time for a quick breather. that statement sets up so many challenges, I mean, opportunities.]

The most vulnerable include those who have used up all their resources to cope with life's challenges. A strong safety net is required for persons and families experiencing a behavioral health crisis or psychiatric emergency to return to normal functioning with as little disruption as necessary. This is the topic I will explore with this blog.

What have I accomplished tonight?

• defined my topic
• created a rationale post
• outlined my professional goal(s)
• reminded myself about the difficulty of practicing humility

What is left to accomplish?

•  outlining a structure for my posts
• linking to some guideline websites

1. Keep posts <250 words. (source)
2. Have interesting headlines. (source)
3. Use relevant keywords consistently and naturally to promote search engine optimization (SEO) and relevance for readers (should also force greater focus on topic organization). (source)

Lessons from previous blogging experiences:

1. post regularly with valuable content
2. this blog is not just a linkdump or collection of items. It is my job, as blogger, to connect the dots and show why the item is relevant.

Part structural guide, part lofty goal announcement, part focus statement: this post covers a lot of ground--and breaks most of the style guidelines just presented.... Thoughtful practice is important to increasing the subtly of our skills; reflection is required for thoughtful practice. Hopefully I can accomplish what this blog sets out to do...The Moon or Bust!