By Jean McAulay
On day one he adjusted 120 people. On the second, third and fourth days, he
saw more than 300 patients a day. And by the fifth day of his chiropractic mission
trip to the Dominican Republic, Lars Eric Larson, D.C., adjusted 500 people
in one day. He was exhilarated, and exhausted. But it wasn’t until he
returned home that he actually slept.
Accustomed to adjusting 40-75 people a day in his Burlington, Vt. practice,
the 1996 Life alum saw chiropractic on a whole new level. “We were so
excited about the impact we were having on people that we’d work all day
and then stay up half the night talking. I was exhausted, but your body doesn’t
let down until you get back home.”
Reaching out around the world
His first experience with a chiropractic mission trip—bringing chiropractic
services to countries and populations who generally do not have access to chiropractic
care—was traveling to Maldova as a student. Now in practice, Larson and
his wife helped organize the recent trip to the Dominican Republic, along with
several other chiropractors associated with Fortune Chiropractic Coaching in
Canada.
Although there’s no doubt the chiropractors provided valuable clinical
care and important health information to the thousands of people they spoke
with and adjusted, mission trips get mixed reviews in the profession. Critics
cite limited continuity of care and lack of access to X-ray and other clinical
tools as drawbacks to the care provided during mission trips. Some also worry
the one-time events, often held in makeshift facilities, provide an unprofessional
image for chiropractic.
“I can see the value of mission trips and believe they can benefit people
even if it’s just a one-time experience, but typically people need ongoing
care,” says Matt McCoy, D.C., a veteran of numerous trips to Russia who
is working to establish chiropractic services there. “In some ways, it
can seem cruel to extend care and then cut off access when the chiropractors
go back home.”
McCoy spent two years living and practicing in Russia and wants to establish
a permanent clinic and eventually an educational program there. “We’ve
probably had close to 20 trips through the years with different doctors traveling
to Russia, and Russian officials and medical doctors coming here to further
the relationship,” he explained. McCoy is the director of the Office of
Sponsored Research and Scholarly Activity for Life University.
Still, actually getting a clinical or educational program in place is complicated.
“Many countries have no tradition of chiropractic. They don’t have
any concept of health care other than traditional medicine. Even if individuals
from Russia come to the United States to study, we need legislation and licensing
in place in their home country so they can return there to practice,”
says McCoy.
Creating permanent clinics
Another entrepreneurial group of chiropractors, focusing on China, has dealt
with continuity of care, at least in the short run, by establishing an on-site
clinic and hiring an American D.C. to staff it.
“Years ago, my friend Dr. Walter Sanchez and I were in a seminar together
and saw this globe sitting there,” explains Corey Rodnick, M.S., D.C.,
Ph.D. “We felt a responsibility to spread chiropractic around the world,
so we basically closed our eyes and put a finger on the globe. I think he went
to Peru and I went to Panama.”
When Rodnick returned, a patient encouraged the Life alumnus to go to China,
and helped him establish contacts with government officials there. “The
first time we went, I was scared to death. Here we were, just a handful of chiropractors,
working with the Public Affairs Office of the Chinese Communist Party. I was
pretty nervous,” he says.
The group’s first goal was to explain chiropractic to medical and government
leaders. Next, they worked to create a name in Chinese for chiropractic. “Then,
their medical community established clinical trials where they evaluated the
health of hospital patients before and after receiving chiropractic care,”
Rodnick says. “Rather than seeing side effects from care—something
they’re always watching for in treatment approaches—they actually
observed the side benefits they weren’t expecting.”
Over the next few years, government officials and medical leaders from China
visited the United States to learn more about chiropractic. And ultimately,
with the full support of the local Chinese government and medical community,
involvement of more chiropractors and support from the Michigan Chiropractic
Association, the chiropractors opened a clinic within a hospital in China. Donations
from a handful of American chiropractors fund a full-time chiropractor there.
Linda Atkinson, D.C., read about the group and the need for a chiropractor in
China and decided to move to Zigong to practice. Today, she sees up to 1,200
patient visits per month. “The patients love chiropractic care,”
she says. “They feel it is something natural that is missing here in China.
Patients want us to open clinics in other cities where they have friends and
relatives.”
Visits between the countries still continue, and discussions today revolve around
ways to expand the effort and develop an education program through the Sichuan
University of Science & Engineering, the nursing school associated with
the hospital where the clinic is located, and Life University.
Making a lasting contribution
“It’s too expensive for us to just send a bunch of American
chiropractors to China,” Rodnick explains. “They have to create
their own chiropractors. We really want to see them develop their own school.”
McCoy shares the same viewpoint. “From my experience, the goal of mission
trips ultimately has to be establishing an educational program in that country—either
a physical structure or some sort of exchange program with an existing chiropractic
college. If foreigners are always doing it, it won’t take root,”
he says.
Chiropractors are still traveling to the Russian clinic to provide care and
Life University provided a scholarship to a Russian medical doctor to complete
the D.C. program at Life. Ekaterina Malakhova, D.C., M.D., is now a program
manager in Life’s research department. Life faculty have also visited
the clinic to provide direct care and to meet with key government and health
department leaders to discuss the possibility of establishing a program there.
“We’ve always taken the approach with this project, which I learned
from Dr. Fred Barge, that the care should always be provided professionally
and with continuity,” McCoy says. “We have never done mass events
there but rather always worked within the clinic setting and had at least some
form of follow-up care, even if it was with manual therapists or others in the
medical community.”
Larson agrees, but has also seen first hand that even one-time care can have
significant results. “Of course, as someone who gets adjusted regularly
myself and emphasizes lifetime care, it would be great if the people we saw
in the Dominican Republic could be checked consistently. But, until that’s
possible, there are many instances where one adjustment makes a big difference
in someone’s life. A dentist would feel the same way—he could do
better with more time, but if he’s given one day and can correct an abscess,
he’s helping that person and possibly preventing future health problems.”
Larson has also seen dramatic changes in himself and the other chiropractors
on mission trips. “When you come back home, you see more, you do more
and you say more to your own patients. You get re-inspired with the real reason
you became a chiropractor in the first place—to help people.”