The chiropractic profession can’t agree on much and in the current climate and battles between the various factions this is becoming even clearer.
In the debate concerning chiropractic education and our clinical standards for practice there are three broad (very broad) groups:
- Chiropractors who are more medically oriented and want to prescribe and inject drugs, use physical therapy, nutrition, exercise etc. They may or may not be subluxation haters.
- Chiropractors who embrace subluxation but retain the concepts of disease, diagnosis and treatment. They generally offer other interventions and advice such as nutrition, exercise, physical therapy etc.
- Chiropractors who embrace subluxation and practice a non-therapeutic model of chiropractic, do not diagnose or treat and make referrals for such things as nutrition, exercise, physical therapy, medical diagnosis and treatment etc.
The factions of the profession that embrace subluxation either from a therapeutic or non therapeutic perspective seem pretty much in agreement that drugs are out and subluxation is in regarding the educational and clinical battles currently being fought.
In the coming months we will more likely than not see a coalition of chiropractors and organizations come together and unite on these two core issues. This coalition will have more members than the ACA and it will trumpet this as having beaten the ACA and CCE at their numbers game. They will then make some demands of the CCE that include putting “without drugs and surgery” and subluxation back into the CCE Standards as well as shuffling the deck chairs in terms of the organizational structure and function of the CCE. The establishment of the coalition and its demands will be hailed as a landmark event.
It’s really a compromise.
And as I’m being reminded now on a regular basis by the elders that run this profession “politics is all about compromise” and we ought to all get in line with this.
Harrrumphhh!
I beg to differ. What we need is to make the most out of this crisis and reform the educational system completely while also making dramatic changes in laws, rules and regulations governing chiropractic practice.
But I’m afraid that’s not going to happen. There is too much invested by the controlling factions and individuals within the profession to upset the apple cart in any meaningful way. In fact, my bet is that any deal that revolves only around drugs, subluxation and cosmetic changes is no change at all. It’s not even getting us back to where we started and we’ll be cementing the Cartel’s control over the profession for years to come while letting down the third and fourth generation of chiropractors who had no hand in creating this mess.
As always I look forward to your feedback, comments and suggestions.
Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
matthewmccoy@comcast.net
Publisher – McCoy Press
http://www.mccoypress.com