April 2007

Our profession's MVP

by Dr. Terry A. Rondberg

If you were to hand out a "Most Valuable Player" award, who would you give it to? Perhaps the president of one of our colleges, or a political lobbyist working in Washington, DC on our behalf? Maybe you'd give it to a renowned practice management guru who has helped thousands of practitioners succeed? What about a researcher working to validate the effectiveness of chiropractic?

Educators, lobbyists, business leaders, researchers. They're all important to the chiropractic "team" and they all deserve recognition and applause. But to me, the real MVPs are the patients who become chiropractic advocates and spread the word about how chiropractic has helped them, and can help others.

I'm talking about people like Geri L. Carlson, who has set new standards for chiropractic advocacy with her book "I Stand Amazed." I can't think of a more dedicated and passionate lay activist in the cause of chiropractic.

Geri's experience with chiropractic is in some ways familiar to all of us ‑‑ a lifetime of ill‑health, culminating in a crisis that brought her to the brink of despair, followed by a "miracle" adjustment.

She could have reacted like most of our patients, celebrating her new‑found health and telling a few friends and family members. But Geri wanted to reach beyond her own personal circle of acquaintances. She wanted to tell the world.

That's why she wrote this compelling book, filled with details about her own experiences with chiropractic as well as important information on subluxation corrective care. "As I share my journey, I pray you will come to understand the truth about reputable, subluxation‑based chiropractic," she tells readers.

In a forward to the book, Robert Schiffman, DC ‑‑ Geri's own chiropractor ‑‑ notes that "Geri has a desire to help people and has always gone above and beyond for other people. She has a fantastic understanding of chiropractic care and health. Through this book and her wonderful testimony, God has given her the ability to help humanity in a wonderful way."

Schiffman himself deserves at least part of Geri's "MVP" award and, in her book's dedication, she says, "How do you thank someone for being a lifesaver? What words could possibly express the gratitude I have for his dedication? He is the epitome of a servant."

But the award really goes to Geri and all the chiropractic advocates like her who are willing to stand up and speak out for chiropractic.

Ironically, we often get so caught up in other issues ‑‑business considerations, professional politics, techniques and procedures ‑‑ that we forget it's really all about our patients. They are the only reason we're here and if we don't remember, every minute of every working day, to put them first, we're bound to fail as chiropractors.

We have to constantly work to serve all people. Not just our current patients, but the millions of others out there who don't yet receive the benefits of chiropractic.  We need to make sure they are aware of chiropractic as a unique form of health care that can improve the quality of their lives. We have to let them know they have a safe and effective alternative to risky medical treatment. And, we have to educate them not to wait until they're in pain or faced with surgery to visit a chiropractor.

As Geri says on her website (www.istandamazed.com), "This is important information that should be shouted from every rooftop ‑‑ we're talking about changing people's lives!"

Are you shouting it from your rooftop? Or, are you shuffling through each day keeping your head down and hoping that people in your community will simply learn about chiropractic through osmosis?

I realize it's not easy to manage a public education program. You're busy in your practice, helping as many people as you can. You hand out brochures in your waiting room and answer any questions your patients might have. But could you be doing more?

How about adding just one or two (three or four?) of these activities:

***  Give a monthly chiropractic talk to a local group (senior center, Chamber of Commerce, health support club, etc.).

***  Hold a free monthly 'open house' where you provide information about the impact of vertebral subluxations and the need for chiropractic care.

***  Write a health article or column for your local weekly newspaper.

***  Buy copies of chiropractic books (such as "I Stand Amazed," "Chiropractic First," and "Chiropractic Works") and distribute them around your community (health food stores, public libraries, gyms, etc.).

***  Produce a weekly show on your local community access cable station (you'd be astonished at how inexpensive this can be).

***  Distribute the patient education brochures you now have in your office to non‑patients by leaving stacks of them in stores, gyms, libraries, and everywhere else you can get permission to do so.

***  Get a website and put up information about chiropractic (not just your office hours and address!). If you have no time or ability to do online work, find a patient willing to help out.

***  Participate in activities like the WCA's "Children's Health Day International" or local health fairs to establish a chiropractic presence in your community.

***  Join chiropractic organizations that have strong public education programs (of course, I think WCA is the best, since it always emphasizes subluxation correction!)

***  Be ready to counter any anti‑chiropractic reports in your local media, even if it's just a letter to the editor.

I could go on and on with other suggestions, but this will get you started. You might not be able to reach out to the world like Geri is doing with her book and website, but you could easily reach an extra 100 people every month by doing just one or two of the things I've mentioned above. That's 1,200 people a year. Multiply it by 60,000 doctors of chiropractic, and we're talking about 72 MILLION people!

At that rate, we'd all be in line for an MVP award.