(Editor’s note: This is a guest post by chiropractic student Scott M. Livingston.)
I’m pro chiropractic with a passion for upper cervical, so what I write is not to be considered a template for what we should do, but rather just some brainstorming ideas.
In my opinion, care needs to be taken as to how upper cervical gets the message out to the general public – though most of us agree a rotary break is gross manipulation, gross manipulators still have their place and are welcome at my dinner table.
I say care needs to be taken because we all know too well that there are enough guns pointing at chiropractic – we don’t need to keep pointing ours, as Dr. Forest reminds us.
First, I think there would need to be consensus with a certification system in the Chiropractic community (schools, doctors, students, leadership organizations etc) that there are specializations within the profession – just as there are in medicine.
If it doesn’t start at the top I can only see that the burden will be on the group of chiropractic specialists (Blair, NUCCA, AO, KCUCS, etc., etc.) to educate the public themselves – uphill battle for sure, but upper cervical is too important to shy away from this mission!
Whether it be via consensus within the community or on the shoulders of the individual group of chiropractors specializing, the general public needs to know there are differences and what those differences are/entail.
So in my head I see a TV commercial promoting general Upper Cervical Chiropractic care and most importantly explaining what it is. The spot will also include a web site, which will educate the public as to what IS Upper Cervical Chiropractic and what is NOT. This site (UpCspine.com or something different) will also have links for the different techniques so a doctor of chiropractic can be found by a prospective patient.
If a doctor wants to position themselves in the community as true upper cervical they need to be recognized by their individual technique organization/society they lay claim to. The doctor needs to be in some sort of certification process (initiate / intermediate / advanced) so the public sees where they are with respect to their education level, experience, etc. Clear definitions of each level of certification needs to be given for patient understanding.
Recently the CLEAR Institute revamped how they were certifying their docs. It’s now done in a manner so that a patient (with a certain condition – say Cobb angle 30* and over) can get an experienced doc to help them out.
Back when I was under Pettibon (CLEAR) care a few years ago, I had to find a new CLEAR doctor – I was in a pinch. This doc was listed as an Advanced doc…this doc had been out of school for about 1.5 years and been working with the CLEAR institute for much less time than that. I was very disappointed in my visit so I did more research and found that the only thing advanced about this doc was the fact that they had all the necessary/required tools and gadgets on site. Too much of this was going on so CLEAR cleaned it up. I mention the CLEAR Institute example because if the certification process is not done properly initially it can come back and bite everyone – worst of all, the patient!
Educating The Public
Today is the day! The public needs to know about Upper Cervical Chiropractic, why it’s different (science and testimonies) and how it can help. That consensus will not happen anytime soon within the profession as it relates to certain specializations – too many politics and too many old school traditional rotary break manipulators won’t let this happen… The burden is on NUCCA, Blair, Palmer specific, AO, Grostic, KCUCS, Kale, etc. to get the message out to the masses.
It’s imperative that not only the message be given, but we need to very carefully and methodically lead the prospective patient to a chiropractor who really is who they say they are – this is why a solid certification / doctor status system is critical (some have it already) for every upper cervical technique.
I can’t stress enough that we need to find a way to lead the prospective patients to a legitimate upper cervical doctor. Nobody can determine how one patient experience can impact a family, town, city, country – the world! If a patient finds themselves at a gross manipulators office and they believe they are getting upper cervical care, then we failed ourselves as an upper cervical community, and the patient!
On a personal level let me make one more point about where we are with respect to educating the public. I have a couple of family members that would still be with their gross manipulators if I had not shared with them just some basic science (thanks Dr. Kirk Eriksen “Upper Cervical Subluxation Complex” and Greg Buchanan with UpCspine.com), solid and true chiropractic philosophy, and most importantly, my own testimony.
Once these family members paid the specific upper cervical doctor a visit, were consulted, educated and adjusted they knew what they were missing – one adjustment gave more to them than all the years of traditional care they were receiving previously.
If I told them today to stop going to their upper cervical doc and that all upper cervical was bad, they wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t listen because they are seeing and feeling their bodies heal and work properly now – unlike before! What’s really cool is that they are now working on other family members sharing their health testimony and some science behind it.
It won’t be long before all my extended family is under upper cervical care… hopefully before I graduate from Palmer.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I think Scott is on fire! Keep that passion Scott! You are going to be an amazing Doc!
January – thanks for the kind words….and yes, I’m very excited!!
As a patient and someone continually looking for really good UC doc’s to help out my friends and family around the country, I get very discouraged and annoyed by some of the things I see and hear out there.
Scott Livingston
Scott, you’re making some very valid points. One of the things we should be seeing very soon is the new Upper Cervical Diplomate program coming out of Life West. This program will do two things. One, it will be an exclusive program for doctors only, in that you can’t start until you have completed the DC program, so it will be a truly post-graduate program. Two, it will be accredited by the ICA to distinguish it from any specific technique to truly have us stand apart. Don’t get me wrong, technique certification will be a must, but a program like this will have a level of legitimacy to us within the profession as well as to the public that any one technique group by themselves could not put together. And you’re not going to have just anyone doing this program to say they’re doing upper cervical that in reality isn’t specific.
Maybe Dr. Dill will chime in here on this discussion, as he was leading the way on this for a while there. Keep up the good work Scott! You already recognize the need for the specific from day one! You’re going to go far!
Frederick Schurger, DC
Sounds very interesting!
I know right out of school I certainly won’t be biting on this program, but rather trying to build my credibility and honing my skills (via certification and practical results etc) with whatever specific technique I decide to use.
I might be in the minority, but I can only see myself doing this program when and if….
1.) it’s offered at other locations other than west coast – maybe they are looking at that too
2.) when I’ve been out of school for at least 5 years
3.) the marketing tells the public I can’t be trusted if I don’t have this program under my belt…..and they actually believe it
4.) I can see that I would be a much better doctor for my patients by going through this program
I have 3.5 years to see if I feel differently about those four line items, but right now I think the UC community needs to focus more specifically, rather than on a general UC diplomat program, as the problem at hand is that it’s freakin hard to find a legitimate doc in some areas of the country who can really deliver what they advertise….not only deliver, but do it with quality!
Example comes to mind.….if I knew of a doc in Kansas that had this UC program under his/her belt I would still scrutinize the junk out of them (most lay folks wont as you know) to find out if they could really adjust my friend or family member, per their advertised technique. I can foresee that some out there might take advantage of a program like this to gain credibility, but not put in any specific work (or retool their existing clinic) to learn a new technique and advertise they are something they aren’t.
Dot, I don’t disagree with you – this does sound like something that would benefit the public and the UC community as a whole and I’m sure some of those who have been using their fav technique for a number of years might really be interested in this. I just don’t think it addresses the hemmoriging that’s taking place out there now.
Scott M. Livingston