CE-accredited poverty simulation training
One two-hour session. CE credit for five professions.
Created by epidemiologist Linda Riddell, Gettin’ By puts your team through a 40-minute game played in 40-second turns, then shows what scarcity does to decisions and how to make your help easier to act on. Nurses, social workers, counselors, dietitians and prevention specialists each earn credit toward their own license or certification.
Coming solo or not ready to book? Sit in on a free public session.
ANCC · ASWB ACE · NBCC · CDR · Maine Prevention Certification Board
Read the transcript
Forty seconds. That’s how long you get to decide. Every choice costs something. Money, family, work, or your own time and energy. When time is short, people look at fewer options and fewer details. That isn’t carelessness. It’s how decisions adapt to a clock. Researchers call it tunneling. Attention narrows to the most urgent problem. Stress adds to the load. It can make it harder to hold information in mind. None of this means people with less make worse decisions. It means they make more of them, with fewer good options and less time. Time’s up. Gettin’ By. Forty seconds at a time.
The whole team trains together.
Each person earns their own credit.
Credits are awarded on completing the full session.
The approvals are held by Health Economy, LLC, the company of Gettin’ By creator Linda Riddell, and come with your conference or staff training.
How it works
Plan
An intro conversation to learn about your group and see the game in action.
Play
A 40-minute game, online or in person. Players face situations taken from real people’s lives, with the timer running.
Understand
Linda explains what just happened to your brain: the science of scarcity and decision-making, with practical examples from health care, social services and education.
Apply
Your team leaves with practical tools and an evidence-based framework for spotting the mental demands your service puts on people and lightening them.
No gym, no volunteers, no room setup. A two-hour session, online or in person.
See inside the game: the cards, the clock and the tablesWhat participants told us
Percentages are from 461 participant evaluations.
- 94%would recommend it to colleagues
- 94%said it had an impact on their professional development
- 99%said it met its learning objectives
“I loved how creative the presentation was with utilizing the game to demonstrate how limited time and distraction can impact choices.”
“If my patient is more worried about getting food for their children, they aren’t going to hear what I’m really saying anyway.”
“I think this presentation should be mandatory for every person working in the health professions.”
Where Gettin’ By has been
- NASW chapters in Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Georgia
- Maine CDC
- MaineHealth
- American Case Management Association
- Hawaii Department of Education
- University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine
- Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association
Who it’s for
Behavioral health teams and associations
A conference session or staff training. It also speaks to what constant pressure does to your clients, and to your staff.
Health centers and care teams
The social-needs screen flags a need. What happens next depends on whether staff can communicate in a way an overwhelmed patient can act on.
Community health worker programs
A module your own trainers can run. Licensing is coming: join the list for early access. Licensed use does not carry CE credit.
Agencies and groups working directly with low-income families
Case workers, family advocates and front-desk staff make dozens of small asks of families every week. Gettin’ By shows them what those asks cost a family that’s already stretched, and how to make help easier to act on.
Colleges and universities
For social work, nursing and public health students, before they meet their first client.
What the clock does to your thinking
You have two bad options and not enough money, time or energy to make either one feel right. So you choose fast. When the brain is crowded by a deadline, by scarcity, or by too many decisions in a row, it works differently.
Every feature of Gettin’ By is designed to crowd your brain. After the game, Linda walks you through what just happened and why you did things you normally wouldn’t.
“You see people’s decisions, not the choices they had.”
Attention narrows to what’s urgent
Anything that isn’t on fire right now drops out of view.
The future gets crowded out
The part of the brain that weighs long-term consequences tires first.
The quick choice wins
Not because people don’t know better. An overloaded brain works this way. Everyone’s does.
Meet Linda
Linda Riddell, MS, is an epidemiologist who specializes in poverty and health. She built Gettin’ By over five years of testing so that professionals could feel scarcity before they’re asked to understand it. She speaks at national and regional conferences and has written for the Portland Press Herald and Mainebiz.
More about LindaSit in on a session first
Public sessions are open to anyone, at no cost. See it for yourself before you book for your team.
- Open to the PublicGettin' By WebinarTuesday, November 17, 2026 · 3:00 PM ET · VirtualRegister here
Bring Gettin’ By to your team
Tell us about your staff and what you’re working on. We’ll suggest a format: a conference session, an in-house training or a series. Not sure yet? Sit in on an upcoming session first, at no cost.
Want to run Gettin’ By with your own trainers? Join the list for early access to licensing.