The health-services industry is one of the few bright spots in a faltering job market.
The Richmond area lost nearly 5,900 jobs in the 12 months that ended in June, according to Chmura Economics & Analytics.
But it gained nearly 2,100 jobs in the education and health-services sectors.
We looked at emerging jobs in health care, from a doula -- Greek for a woman who serves -- to a medical practice that bridges neurology and psychiatry.
We talked with a memory coach who trains brains and a respiratory-care therapist who deals daily in saving lives.
Surprisingly, all of the people featured are in their 50s.
It wasn't by design.
We had no way of knowing ages or races of the dozens of people who responded to our inquiry until we met them and talked with them.
The 50s must be the time of life at which if you're not doing what you want to by then, you better do something quickly or you may never get there.
In yesterday's Richmond Times-Dispatch, we featured seven unusual and divergent jobs done by people age 31 to "retired." Three are in their 50s, one is a year younger and another a year older.
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Robert 'Hawk' Hawkins
Job: Intensive-care respiratory therapist at VCU Medical Center
Residence: Mechanicsville
Age: 58
Quote: "I like just everything about my job. Of course, it's stressful. But that's part of the job." Robert "Hawk" Hawkins retired from his job as an intensive-care respiratory therapist a year ago in October and came back to work full time in the same job a month later.
He liked his job too much to quit, but he was eligible for retirement benefits.
"It's life-saving, often thrilling and I've been doing it for 37 years."
Hawkins said he sees the people you read about in the news, "the stabbings, the shootings, the car accidents."
He also works with transplant patients and others in intensive care. He's run up to 21 ventilators at a time, but he typically works with about 10 patients during his Friday through Sunday 12-hour shifts.
"I breathe for people with machines. I keep them alive until they can get better and can breathe on their own. . . . We're helping people. It's the best."
The end result isn't always good. "Sometimes it can get to you, especially if it's young people like a 19-year-old boy who was in a wreck and was brain dead. You have to be a brave person to do pediatrics. I can't do that."
Hawkins was an art student at Virginia Commonwealth University in the early 1970s. His grandfather, who was putting him through school, became ill with terminal lung cancer. Hawkins visited him in the hospital.
"I decided then that if I couldn't do something in the arts I wanted to do something in the medical arts. My first [hospital] director took pity on me [and] now 20 directors later, I am still here."
He was hired as a trainee and went through a respiratory-care training program in the late 1970s.
"I work for the greatest people on earth. They are so dedicated. I stay out of the politics. I focus on my job. I don't have a lick of trouble."
For fun, he rides a Harley Road King. "I've never had a bad wreck." He goes surf fishing in Cape Hatteras, N.C., and plays with his pit bull, Ace, "the sweetest dog."
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David Ross
Job: Neuropsychiatrist, director of the Virginia Institute of Neuropsychiatry
Residence: Chesterfield County
Age: 50
Quote: "I am aware of no more than a handful of neuropsychiatrists in Virginia." David Ross specializes in traumatic brain injury and involuntary movement disorders caused by brain medications.
"These common and serious medical conditions often fall in the gap between neurology and psychiatry," Ross said.
His field of medicine has developed in the past 20 years, as more has been learned about the brain. "Not a lot of doctors specialize in out-patient traumatic brain injuries. I am one of the few."
His business model is as unusual as his practice. He accepts almost no health insurance. His practice is among only 10 percent in the country that is private pay, he said.
"This business model was difficult to achieve in the insuranceand government-dominated health-care environment, but we have been able to swim against the ocean and keep our heads afloat for nine years."
Patients pay more out-of-pocket to see Ross. But they also can get what they need, he said. "We are not limited by insurance companies or government restrictions."
Many of his patients have been in car accidents, they have been hit on their heads or they are victims of domestic abuse.
"Most have mild traumatic brain injury. Some will recover within a few months. Others will have persistent symptoms."
Symptoms include impaired concentration, memory loss, mood swings, anxiety,
insomnia and fatigue.
Another set of patients suffers from involuntary movements that fall into two categories -- writhing in the face, lips, tongue and fingers and the twisting of the head and neck in one direction.
These disfiguring movements -- some severe and socially disabling -- can be caused by anti-psychotic medications or a drug prescribed for gastrointestinal problems and can be irreversible, Ross said.
"My patients tend to be complicated." The initial evaluation is three to four hours and costs $850.
"My job is intellectually challenging, and it's rewarding to help sick patients get better," Ross said.
Some cases are so tragic that he can't talk about them with friends or family, he said, noting that he always protects patient confidentiality.
"I try to look at the positive side: We can help almost all our patients. . . . We do research and use technology at the cutting edge of neuropsychiatry."
Ross graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in 1986 and did his residency in psychiatry there. He completed a fellowship in neuropsychiatry with a focus on schizophrenia research at University of Maryland in 1992.
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Judy Woolfolk
Postpartum doula
Residence: Louisa County
Age:52
Quote: I havent been a doula as long as others, but I love it and I have
been searching for this job for many years.
Judy Woolfolk has worked as a registered nurse in a hospital and at a doctor's office. She's taught school. She's been a nanny.
"And now I have the best job of all -- doula," she said.
Woolfolk, mother of two college-age children and one deceased son, started practicing as a postpartum doula about a year ago, helping couples make their transition to parents as smoothly and with as little stress as possible.
"It's a big transition. With a lot of people having babies older in their lives or living far away from family, I am there to mother the mother," Woolfolk said.
"I am so blessed to have families open their homes and hearts to me, allowing me the privilege to encourage, educate, pamper them and love on their little ones."
She helps parents gain confidence in their new roles, and she gives them time to rest or spend time with older children.
"You get to be with different families at a special time in their lives, when they bring home a brand-new baby."
She works a minimum four-hour shift in the daytime and eight hours at night. Most jobs are a few days or nights a week, but they vary according to needs, she said.
Woolfolk said she likes to meet with an expectant mother about a month before delivery to get to know her and find out about her level of support from family, church and friends.
She is one of about 16 postpartum doulas in the Richmond area, said Kathy Stewart, a doula trainer and member of Doulas of North America. About 30 women are labor-and-delivery doulas in the area.
"We need people. We don't have enough doulas," Stewart said.
Insurance typically doesn't pay for doula care. Coverage is provided if a person's spouse is in the military and deployed.
The cost of a doula in the Richmond area is $20 to $30 an hour, depending upon their level of expertise.
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Paul Mello
Job: Memory coach
Residence: Chesterfield County
Age: 51
Quote:I have a passion for what I do and believe everyone can improve their memory.
When people hear what Paul Mellor does for a living, their first response is: "Really?"
The second reaction is: "How did you get into that?"
And the most common response? "Boy, do I need that."
Mellor teaches people how to remember.
He teaches them how to recall names and faces, how to overcome absent-mindedness and how to give speeches without using notes.
"What began as a seven-minute speech at the Richmond Toastmasters Club in 1994 has turned into a full-time job."
He became a full-time coach when his sales job in the insurance industry ended in 2004. He has presented his Memory Magic seminar in 44 states.
"Memory is the most important topic there is, yet it's often overlooked," Mellor said. "It's a subject we seldom address. People talk about having a bad memory, but no one talks about how to improve it. When we're skilled in memory, all our other skills get better."
Think what it could do for a person's career if a bellhop could remember names, if attorneys could speak in court without notes, if police officers could remember license-plate numbers, he said.
Mellor has brought his message to trade associations such as the Illinois funeral directors, California hostage negotiators, Washington state truckers and Arkansas court reporters.
"I have a better memory now than when I was 21," said Mellor, who has competed for the past six years in the USA Memory Championship.
He can remember a string of 100 numbers. Give him the names and pictures of 99 people and, in 15 minutes, he can put them together.
One way to remember someone's name when you hear it for the first time is to say the person's name right away and make an association. Or do a quick visualization and attach new information to something you already know.
Want to remember Mellor's first name, for example? Think of a famous person with that name, say Paul McCartney, and associate the famous Beatle with Mellor.
Contact Carol Hazard at (804) 775-8023 or chazard@timesdispatch.com.
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