The Plan [Home Sweet Home]

This is the personal website and blog of George J Huba (PhD: I went to school for 20 years so they gave me some letters which of course do not guarantee quality).You’re here. I’m here. Might as well make the best of it.

Together we can make a small difference in the health and social care system. Small differences improve and save lives.

Released from grad school in 1976, I spent the next 35 years conducting applied psychological research, developing new data analysis methods for testing theories, developing and publishing psychological tests, and most importantly evaluating the quality of treatment and prevention programs for the poor and disenfranchised with special needs.

I’ve had the opportunity and pleasure to work with really brilliant people in social and health science. Along the way they taught me some interesting things and opened my mind to many more possibilities . And they were very generous about sharing their knowledge and passion for helping others.

I’ve conducted research (in collaboration with many others) on drug abuse prevention and treatment, HIV/AIDS services, empowering communities, forming service provider networks, increasing the nursing workforce in the areas of HIV/AIDS and geriatrics, creating professional and services infrastructure, elder abuse and domestic violence, psychological testing, research methodology, long-term master planning, geriatrics, and psychometrics. I learned that much work remains to be done in each of these areas. I also learned that real work is needed and the criterion for “real” is not peer-reviewed journal articles written to gain an academic promotion.

I’ve collaborated with physicians, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, statisticians, geriatricians, educators, program managers, psychologists, funders, epidemiologists, health care planners, and most importantly service consumers. I learned that brilliant solutions originate from all fields of inquiry and all types of people. Especially if they can communicate with one another. And if they are pragmatic.

This blog and web site is about what I learned in over 35 years. Of course, these are my stories and others may interpret the data in different ways. Although I believe I am pretty objective, almost all of the fields in which I have worked are ones of “professional judgment” and not ones of true-false (absolutes). Professional judgment is not rocket science but rather commonsense. In professional contexts, commonsense is based on seeing a lot of studies and clients and data and outcomes and reactions and alternatives and politics and blending these together with ethics and humanity as you progress through a field over decades. And, you must never forget to make direct observations yourself of what you want to try to explain.

The bottom-line is that I am pragmatic and I want to find the best possible, feasible solutions rather than whining that “THEY” should do something “about it.” I recognize that the glass is never full but I am quite sure that somewhat full is far better than empty. On this site I talk about being “real” and doing what can be done rather than waddling in inaction because the issues seem too big to deal with. And I prefer to see the glass as partially full and not partially empty. We are all responsible for filling the glass to full. And it takes a village to fill the glass.

I hope you find the ideas expressed helpful to you. It took me a long time to try to get over my own arrogance and realize most things don’t work the way textbooks say they should and you don’t need to have the perfect answer before you can start doing something to help. Thanx.

This picture of me was taken in the Visitors’ Center of the US Capitol. Now there’s a scary place. The US Capitol is one of the world’s centers of lost opportunity, foolishness, and cruelty through inaction. I’m searching for pragmatism and commonsense. Didn’t come back with any pictures of either. I hope to be more successful in the pages of this web site.

Most of the pictures on this web site expand when clicked. Give it a try (you really can’t read most of the figures as intended if you do not click). Look for the small “expand” picture. It is there to remind me that it is often simple to see more if you just get a little closer.

The pictures, graphs, diagrams, and fractals are all my work unless otherwise noted. If you cannot see these materials clearly, blame the web site developer (oops, that’s me).

You will quickly learn that I like fractals, mind maps, infographics, sketchnotes, concept maps, bright colors, photographs, and data visualizations. That will become obvious. I am a strong believer in visual thinking and visual communication.