You can't be everything to everybody

by Dr. Kevin Pallis and Dr. Ed Plentz

As a parent, you have a responsibility to do what's right, not what is easy or convenient. Most children do not fully understand some things, like eating vegetables, cleaning rooms, and developing character and morals. They might kick, scream and threaten to hold their breath until they turn blue, but the parent still has an obligation. A moral obligation to do what the child needs not what he or she wants. As a chiropractor, do you cave in to the wants of your patients or like a good parent, do you stand your ground?

Let's focus attention on the wants and needs of society at large.

Alcoholics want more alcohol, they need sobriety. A large person wants more food, but needs a healthy lifestyle. While a poor person wants to win the lottery, sadly he or she will be poor again next year. Your patients want their symptoms removed, yet they need to understand the chiropractic lifestyle for themselves and their family.

Parents need to be taught that they and only they must take responsibility for their family's health. This is not an easy task. Parents want the best for their children, yet they have no idea of the nerve system and its role in health and learning. You must have a complete educational system that takes each patient from where he or she is to where he or she needs to be. By educating parents today, we establish the link to the next generation. We carve out our own identity, thereby distancing and separating ourselves from the allopathic fixers out there. Without patient education, patients' behavior will remain the same and their low expectations of chiropractic become more deeply etched in their minds.

When you mention chiropractic, most people think of back pain as a last resort for people who have been everywhere else. With this as our identity, no wonder there's so much frustration associated with patients not "getting it." Think of recent movements that had education as their foundation ‑‑ prevention in dentistry, recycling, and exercise ‑‑ all the facts, figures, and data in the world will not change people's behavior. How much research would you like in order to "prove" smoking is bad for you? Now educational programs are finally making a dent in teenage smoking. You need to understand that you are introducing a brand new concept to people and, as with most new concepts, they are initially rejected as being silly or even dangerous. You must make the new concept real to them. Patient education does this.

The reality is, average patients entering chiropractic offices are running scared. They have aging parents who are in a precarious state of health. They have a sister, a mother or an aunt with breast cancer. They have nieces and nephews with everything from autism to eating disorders. And there you are, on the bottom of their health care choices, competing with everybody from an orthopedic surgeon to a massage therapist. We have to wake up as a profession and take a firm stand on chiropractic and the next generation ... children.

People are looking for leaders in the arena of wellness, not more sickness. Much like the quick fixes out there for everything from weight loss to marital difficulties, they have no foundation and they don't last. Having patients come in with no patient education only to leave when the symptoms lessen or their insurance dries up, is akin to a parent pretending not to smell the cigarette or marijuana smell on their children's clothes. Making a stand as a chiropractor or a parent is the same. It's difficult but worth it. Not only will your practice grow, but your office will take on an identity of uniqueness. Fun, spirit, and yes profit all magically appear when you stop trying to be all things to all people.

When parents take the easy way out and don't commit to parenting, the results will be evident in the next generation. Look at the children today. Learning disabled, emotionally disabled, commitment disabled, and taking more drugs than any previous generation in recorded history. How can we as DCs be proud of our part (or non‑part) in this? As chiropractors, we have a unique opportunity that is slipping through our collective fingers. Instead of creating our own identity of birth to death family chiropractors, we are allowing people to tell us who we are as DCs (back‑crackers).

Society is searching for the leaders in health, not disease. Healthy people create a healthy world, and when you stand up for what you believe in you will turn off some patients, but you will also turn on others. You can't be everything to everybody. Sounds a lot like being a good parent.

(The New Renaissance is a movement of passionate chiropractors dedicated to changing the world. The leader in patient education since 1977, the Mentor IV Coaching Program is a step‑by‑step navigational guide that embodies the very essence of The New Renaissance vision of healthier people creating a healthier world. Without patient education, your patients won't "get it." To learn more about The New Renaissance, contact world headquarters at 800‑525‑3879.)