We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pooja A. Patel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Pooja, thanks for joining us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?
I started my career as an eager-to-learn occupational therapist in June 2017, searching for the best opportunity in acute care (hospital). Following more than five years in direct patient care within hospital settings, the most important lesson I learned was to put myself first. In a constant need to succeed and advance, my work ethic quickly became a doormat – eager to please and easy to take advantage. The catch? I’d never succeed vertically, but I didn’t know that at the time. After three repeat experiences of being turned away from advancement opportunities, I realized it wasn’t me. Thus, I learned and decided to put myself first. That meant leaving a job and a team I absolutely loved to build something for myself that would result in a long-term plan. I stepped away from the full-time job in September 2022, took four months off, and started my private practice in January 2023. Six months later, in June 2023, I became credentialed with Medicare Part B to officially start taking clients and patients. I am excited to see where this takes me as I plan out a patient schedule starting in September 2023, exactly a year after leaving my full-time job!
Pooja, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
As a second-generation first-born to Indian immigrant parents, a career in healthcare was strongly advised from a very young age. However, as I got older, I didn’t have the desire to become a physician. I began exploring other healthcare professions with my personal interests in mind and found my way to occupational therapy. This resulted in a six-year program in which I graduated with a Doctor of Occupational Therapy. Over the past six years in the field, I developed a strong passion for helping our elderly and obtained specialty certifications in dementia, fall prevention, and geriatric care. This ultimately led to my private practice which is now essentially an outpatient geriatric wellness clinic. I offer private consulting to older adults and their families to help navigate dementia, as well as cognitive testing and treatment to middle-aged to older adults. Additionally, I offer services covered under Medicare Part B for those who qualify (i.e., occupational therapy; annual wellness visits). My goal is to decrease the rate of late-stage diagnoses of cognitive decline in order to assist individuals and their families plan ahead for long-term care options and end-of-life goals, as well as prevent accidents and injuries that may result from cognitive decline. If you’re interested in learning more, you can visit cchealthysolutions.com!
I am most proud of stepping outside of my comfort zone to leave a cushy 8-4 job to pursue something that brings me pure joy with endless uncertainty. I now work within an environment that I have full control over with the ability to make decisions that directly impact my clients. I speak four languages (including English), which helps me serve a greater community and improve access to care for dementia specifically. I offer services virtually and in-person. Medicare services available in-person and in Illinois only.
Outside of my healthcare career, some may recognize me as the face of a newly introduced and growing social community platform, Couplr. This mobile app helps couples find and make new platonic friendships with shared interests in new environments. Basically, “meetup” meets a dating app, but with less decision-making. My husband and I created this app from pure personal necessity after I moved halfway across the country to a city with no known friends. In this digital age of dating and friend-finding, we thought it needed to be easier to find friends that both individuals in a relationship could get along with – and thus, Couplr was born. This passion-project turned into a sensation as we began sharing it with friends and family. Relaunched in February 2023, there are now 3000+ users across the country. Find out more at couplr.io!
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Saying yes and pledging loyalty. I was raised to work hard to please those above you – generationally, a sign of respect and loyalty. However, working through the systems and becoming utterly overwhelmed and stretched thin, I learned, rather unlearned, to say yes to everything, and started saying no to things that did not resonate with me (passion, desire, ethics, morals, etc.). Loyalty is a grayer lesson to unlearn. As a generation, we grew up seeing our parents loyal to their communities (rarely anyone ever moved), loyal to their friends and families (even if they were toxic), and loyal to their jobs (even if they hated them). I unlearned these systematically, starting with moving away for college despite pushback from my communities, followed by moving halfway across the country for work after college. I started my career as a travel therapist, moving jobs every three months, unlearning job loyalty along the way. Finally, I unlearned loyalty to toxic friends and family, choosing to put myself first and removing them from my life. Now, I say no to the things I don’t want to do, and I remove things and people from my life as needed. These were lessons that required a lot of unlearning, but it helped me get to where I am today – content and happy in (most) decisions I make (after all, we’re only human).
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
In healthcare specifically, I truly believe that knowing and establishing your ethics and morals is a must. The system challenges them a lot through various demands at all levels of hierarchy, but especially at the bottom, and by the time you make it to the top, many times, those ethics and morals become blurred. I made my own ethics and morals a strong line that I vowed to never cross, and as soon as I realized they no longer met the demands I was being asked to meet, I left. Leaving is never an easy decision to make, but I truly believe it is a strong means to send a message. If every healthcare provider had the ability to do so, we might eventually make a change in our healthcare system from an employment perspective.
Contact Info:
- Website: cchealthysolutions.com & couplr.io
- Instagram: @agingtogether_cchs & @couplrapp
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/patelpoojaa
- Other: Aging Together Podcast: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6OkibcRfkS1Wb7qzC4tDUc?si=da6df662b57a4269 Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8yMTA5NDMyLnJzcw Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/14bdb6d2-adae-4981-8147-7ec5c4f482ff/aging-together
Image Credits
Couplr team photo – Allan Carrazco – @allancarrazcophotographer on Instagram I have full rights to logo usage for all three logos.