Sitting here in Massachusetts on this dreary, dour and dank day, looking out the window and watching all manner of birds at the feeders (they’re really fond of the suet), I was planning on writing something about Roberto Ceniceros’s excellent article, “Taking the Psych Out of Psychosocial,” published this week in Risk & Insurance’s Workers Comp Forum.
Roberto suggests that the prefix “psych” in “psychosocial” causes confusion in the payer community, because it is difficult to distinguish between social co-morbidities and true psychological ailments. He also quotes our friend and colleague Jennifer Christian,M.D., who recently started a LinkedIn thread that gained immediate traction on the same subject.
Whatever you want to call them (how about co-morbid issues?), what we now know as psychosocial issues as well as the predictive analytics for identifying them early form the basis for an interesting and necessary discussion.
But we’re not going to do that today. No, today we’re going to sing the praises of someone most of you have never heard of – Ted Coughlin.
Over the years, the Insider has written about the shortage of skilled workers in the US, especially in manufacturing, which has become highly technical. The country’s educational systems were not keeping up with the speed-of-light technological advancements that bombard us continuously. This was especially true in Worcester, Massachusetts, where Worcester VoTech had become a city embarrassment. For twenty years, Worcester businessman Ted Coughlin devoted his considerable energy and local power to changing that. A one man force of nature, Ted was the person most responsible for the creation of Worcester Technical High School, a state of the art, nationally envied educational institution.
Early this year, the school won the US Department of Education’s National Blue Ribbon School Award, an award won by only 0.2% of the nation’s public and private high schools. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan toured the school in March. In April, the school’s Robotics and Automation Technology Team, the Commandos, one of 420 teams from 23 countries, won the VEX Robotics World Championship. In June, President Obama came to deliver the Commencement Address and acknowledged the extraordinary commitment of the city to lead the way to education’s future. But he saved his greatest praise for Ted, without whom the school would never have happened.
We lost Ted last night. He took a fall at home and died. He was a big-hearted, charismatic Prince of a guy who was loved and admired. In the years to come, graduates of Worcester Technical High School, as well as those from the other schools that Worcester inspires, tomorrow’s leaders, will owe a debt of gratitude to this wonderful man.
And so, that’s why, with apologies to Roberto and Jennifer, we’re postponing the column on psychosocial issues.
Rest in peace, Ted.
