April 2004

Mission Possible

Reprinted, with permission, from the Canadian Chiropractor (www.canadianchiropractir.ca)

At the age of 26, Dr. Richard Tapper has discovered his mission. Literally. The addicted, the homeless and the poor trying to stay alive on Winnipeg's mean streets have in turn found much more than a meal, clothing and literacy tutoring at Siloam Mission. They can get adjusted at no charge by a young chiropractor who has learned that in order to receive one also has to give.

In a month, as many as 350 street people ‑‑ the untouchables of modern Canadian society ‑‑ visit Tapper at the Main Street soup kitchen/food bank. With trained hands, a portable table and a subluxation station, which monitors autonomic nervous system function, Tapper represents a positive and consistent presence. "When you offer hope to someone, that gives them something to strive for too," he observes.

Putting a face on urban poverty, Tapper describes his patients as people with all kinds of problems, such as former multi‑millionaires with university degrees who have lost it all, those whose spouses or partners have left them and they cannot recover, or folks who have been injured and are unable to return to work. There are the men and women whose brains are addled from sniffing solvents and drinking disinfectant. Alcoholism rears its ugliest head twice a month when the welfare cheques are distributed and Siloam Mission is so quiet you could hear a pin drop, because the party is elsewhere.

With a possible monthly income of less than $300, Tapper's patients typically have no fixed address ‑‑ feeling lucky to occasionally lodge at a seedy hotel or Salvation Army shelter ‑‑ and no Manitoba Health card. The provincial health ministry covers $9 for each of 12 chiropractic visits a year; mission clients pay nothing extra for services. Most of them have never previously been adjusted and, for that matter, are not otherwise likely in their everyday lives to be touched in a professional, caring manner.

Initially, Tapper takes a thorough case history and performs an assessment. He says to those who come, "I should be calling you doctor," explaining that it is their own body taking care of the healing, and his role to eliminate the interference to their central nervous system. Treatment results have reportedly included better sleep patterns, reduction in the need for pain medication, diminishing of symptoms, and a lessening of addictive behaviour. There are patients who have re‑entered the workplace as labourers, and even those who have landed $10‑to $12‑an‑hour telemarketing jobs.

The executive director of Siloam Mission, Dr. John Mohan, praises Tapper as "a godsend" who "gives dignity to each one, as he treats and counsels them compassionately" while providing physical care.

Not everyone has eased the way for Tapper's outreach practice. Arranging for X‑rays is challenging since the city's hospitals open their labs only for trauma outpatients and for people who have been referred by an M.D. So far, no physician has stepped forward to help the mission out.

In August, Tapper Chiropractic opened its doors in Fort Garry, near the University of Manitoba. From his new and busy base, Tapper is pleased to be treating visiting Canadian Football League players as well as members of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers cheerleading squad.

A graduate of the University of Winnipeg (BSc) and Southern California University of Health Sciences (DC), Tapper returned home in March of this year after interning with Ottawa chiropractor Marc St. Denis who instilled potent attitudes about professional and personal development. The two men are planning their own coaching program, which will acknowledge that procedure is important, but there is more to being a successful chiropractor. According to Tapper, "You have to know what you want, but you also have to give back to patients, the community, your family and yourself."

Tapper says their coaching strategy could assist other doctors to dramatically increase patient visits per week, but he adds, "Numbers are not important. Healing people is."

(Note: Doctors may contact Dr. Tapper about his work at doctapper@hotmail.com or 204/275‑5030)