Chiropractors in Adelaide: What makes us different?
Around the world chiropractic care benefits extend to your body, mind, wallet, and so much more.
However, in Adelaide, and in general in Australia, we are famous for the impressive qualifications and for the quality and safety standards and regulations followed by our Chiropractors.
Any Adelaide chiropractor that wants to support your health and wellbeing needs to complete 5 years of study.
Therefore, their path usually begins with an accredited bachelor’s degree in Health Science and has to be followed by a two-year Master of Clinical Chiropractic. At the culmination of their chiropractic studies, in the final years, they must undertake practical treatment and care of patients under the supervision of a registered practitioner.
After completing their studies, our Chiropractors need to achieve The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) registration via an important application process, which is including a mandatory Continued Professional Development (CPD) requisite1.
The CPD has to be renewed each year. This involves accomplishing training courses and seminars which are required to guarantee that our practitioners have updated and developed their knowledge. In fact, AHPRA mission is to protect the public by regulating health practitioners efficiently and effectively to facilitate access to safer healthcare1.
In general, our Chiropractic practitioners are experts in assessing and diagnosing spinal and musculoskeletal problems and developing therapeutic approaches for those issues. They are skilled in spinal adjustments and other joint and soft-tissue manipulations. Their knowledge includes anatomy, physiology, microbiology, neuroanatomy, histology and pathology.
A further essential focus of their education is on the assessment and management of patients from a wellness perspective. This is what differentiates Adelaide Chiropractors from others, they work with you to understand the ways in which your lifestyle may be affecting your health.
South Australian Practice
The idea that Adelaide Chiropractors are different may come from several initiatives investigated and developed for our population wellbeing. For instance, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has identified fundamental aspects of wellbeing, such as health, education, training, work, economic resources, housing, crime and justice, culture and leisure2. In view of such framework, South Australia has been moving towards a wellbeing agenda that considers each person and these characteristics: population, family and community, and personal level – and the interactions between such levels3.
Scientific publications indicate that our region, South Australia, comes higher compared to Australia/New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, and global norms in relation to wellbeing3. Our Relationships, Meaning, and Positive Emotions are higher, perhaps because of our sense of community.
The Sense of Community of Adelaide Chiropractors
Our local Chiropractors work like others, focusing on treatments that are designed to address chronic pain, back injuries, sports injuries, lower back pain and/or leg pain (sciatica), neck pain, headaches and migraines, joints issues (e.g. shoulders, knees, extremities), arthritic pain, repetitive strains, posture issues and many other connected problems4.
However, they are famous for understanding their patients, their communities and environments. For example our local Chiropractors consider these aspects2:
- The individual (personal) wellbeing: they examine the way a person feels, and the things that impact them on a personal level.
- The population (societal) wellbeing: they observer and examine patients taking in their collective attributes and groups within society and groups that they belong to.
- The transactions or social exchanges: They learn about the interactions/connections between these levels and consider the history of events and circumstances that link individuals to their family, community and society as a whole.
The community and the social environment are fundamental for many of our local Chiropractors because, as in the model in the picture from ABS for social statistics2, they see patient’s social environment in terms of nested communities. The individual /person’s core community (most usually their immediate family) is the site for a person’s primary and most intimate relations.
The core community consists of those people who offer love, comradeship, nurture, care and support, economic security, and guidance.
The wider community includes connections and social exchanges which people undertake outside their close circle of family and friends. For example, some functions of the formal wider community are to provide the person/ individual with employment and a source of income to satisfy his/her consumption needs2.
Key functions of the formal wider community are to provide a social and communication network that joins the individual to others with similar interests and values2. These functions and others of our inner circles are provided in South Australia, 39 Main South Rd, O’Halloran Hill. This location is home to the SA Wellness Centre, which brings Chiropractic services and multidisciplinary solutions to your health needs.
Their natural approach considers several aspects of your communities and inner circles, and brings experts in several areas connected to your health (chiropractic, yoga, massage, physiotherapy, and naturopathy). They recognise and use wellness and wellbeing knowledge to support you. They understand that your health and wellbeing are inter-dependent upon your physical, mental, emotional and transactional environment.
Reference
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- The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and the National Boards. Annual report 2017/18. 2019; Available from: http://www.ahpra.gov.au/documents/default.aspx?record=WD18%2f26585%5bv3%5d&dbid=AP&chksum=oP18PfDobofqkjjE0O3y8tV2YV1efaN%2flf0MEwudwsg%3d (Accessed on the 10th of June 2019).
- Webster, A., Bode, G., & Posselt, H. (2008). Measuring Wellbeing: The Australian Bureau of Statistics Framework for Social Statistics. United Nations Statistics Division.
- Iasiello, M., Bartholomaeus, J., Jarden, A., & Kelly, G. (2017). Measuring PERMA+ in South Australia, the State of Wellbeing: A comparison with national and international norms. Journal of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing, 1(2), 53-72.
- Globe G, Morris C, Whalen W et al., “Chiropractic Management of Low Back Disorders: Report from a Consensus Process,” Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics November/December 2008: 651-658.
* The author thanks and acknowledges the valuable feedback provided by Dr. Alejandra Pinero (PhD) & Lauryn Pountney.
