Author: Amanda Waters Wow! I have just had my first experience of a WCCS event and already I am keeping my fingers crossed it will be the start of attending many more. Over the weekend of 5th to 7th September 2014 the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) hosted the WCCS European Regional Event in Odense. The event was planned and managed by the SDU WCCS members led by Elizabeth Fugl the Official convener.
The SDU WCCS Chapter hosted the welcome party with a tour around the facilities, refreshments and networking. Larisa knew almost everyone from previous WCCS events and was very warmly welcomed with many hellos and hugs. Although slightly nervous about my first WCCS external event I needn’t have been as everyone was so welcoming and very friendly – one big family! To kick off proceedings each Head Delegate gave a short presentation with an overview of their individual college. We learned that Barcelona Chiropractic College had just celebrated it’s first cohort of graduates, Denmark had a spine centre within the local hospital for all students to work in during their clinic year, IFEC had the largest delegation in attendance with 25 students representing France and AECC were about to install an upright MRI machine. The presentations were followed by a well deserved drink and our first trip out into Odense. For no explained reason, other than “it is Denmark”, free beer was flowing at the bar and the rest of the evening went by very quickly! Another early start of Saturday morning and more than a few bleary eyed delegates sat in the impressive lecture theatre at SDU awaiting our first speaker. Christian Stamer is a full time Chiropractor and a board member of the Danish Chiropractic Association Board. He explained how Chiropractic in Denmark holds a unique position in a worldwide perspective. Chiropractic is not only legal but is also subsidized by the national health service and chiropractors are headhunted to national hospitals. Chiropractic continues to gain more rights aimed at integrating chiropractic competencies into the national health care system. The college itself has worked together with the health service to develop the spine centre where all interns carry out their practical clinic year dealing with the most complex musculoskeletal cases. Those where the patient has already been seen by several different doctors and therapists over very long periods of time and have not yet found a diagnosis or treatment that has relieved them from symptoms. Soren O’Niel, Chief Chiropractor and Clinical Associate at the Spine centre of Southern Denmark gave us an insight into how the system works in the ‘secondary sector’ in Denmark. A slightly different system to the UK as the ‘primary sector’ is for private practice in Denmark. Their unique practice of employing Chiropractors in clinical functions within a hospital has been in place since 1988. Initially employed within the spine centre of the hospital Chiropractors are now being approached and employed in other areas such as radiology, rheumatology and orthopedics. Although quite a new approach it is working well and he believes this will prove to be central to the professional advancement of chiropractic. Soren used different analogies to get us thinking about the identity of chiropractic in different countries and places. He suggested that very few other professions discuss or think much about identity or having to think about how to explain what we do or who we are, as an example he sited that a GP would never think like that. So why do Chiropractors place themselves in a modality rather than a treatment? The example he gave to explain was that if a research paper was published tomorrow saying ‘spinal manipulation does not work’, potentially Chiropractors across the world would struggle to maintain their business. However if a paper came out saying fluoride on teeth had no impact a dentist would just change the treatment and likely stay in business. He explained this is why Chiropractors need to differentiate as musculoskeletal specialists rather than consider the spine only. Something we at McTimoney are already ahead of the game with! Our last presentation for the morning was from Anne Molgaard Nielson, a 2006 graduate from SDU and now a full time PhD fellow at the University as part of the research unit for Clinical Biomechanics. SDU has a separate Clinical Biomechanics (Chiropractic) 5 year degree programme with a bachelors degree and a Masters degree programme. Research is a big part of the faculty and has been fully integrated into the syllabus. Anne considered this to be fairly unique to SDU. Grethe Thostesen provided the afternoons thought provoking lecture. Grethe is a Palmer College graduate (many years ago!) and has an MSc in Chiropractic Pediatrics from AECC. Since 1978 she has had her own Chiropractic clinic specialising in babies and children whilst also teaching in Universities and hosting courses in pediatric chiropractic. Grethe took us through the identification of Plagiocephaly in babies, possible treatments and possible causes. Research papers by Val Vlimmeren provided a backdrop to the presentation and backed up Grethe’s own findings and research that Plagiocephaly occurs more often after birth and has seen a sharp increase in cases since parents were advised to put their babies to sleep on their backs. Thus causing the back of the head to flatten or the side of the heads to indent.
Apparently all WCCS events include a party night and the Danish WCCS chapter were passionate that we went home raving that they know how to party. Let us just say that Larisa and I did not let McTimoney down and were happy to take part in the evening festivities. However what happens in Denmark stays in Denmark! Yet another very early start and on a Sunday! Fortunately the morning speakers and presentations were all amazing and interactive as there may have been a few nodding heads and snoring noises from the audience. Gitte Tonner was another previous graduate from SDU, a former WCCS Chair of annual congress, a current executive board member of the Netherlands Chiropractors Association and Academic Coordinator for the ECU. Gitte gave a really inspiring talk about her personal story of being a Chiropractor. Setting out her take on the politics, philosophy and practice. Using real patient cases to provide a background and invaluable tangible advice. Through experience and subsequent research Gitte has become more aware of the neurological and nutritional aspects to Chiropractic and good health. A firm advocate that the patient needs to be aware and also follow advise rather than just having a treatment and then continuing to come back time and time again for the same treatment for the same ailment when they could also be helping themselves, in particular in relation to nutrition. Gitte suggested a number of text books around the subject that she had found useful and inspiring (listed at the bottom of the page). Per Fink took us through a research programme for Functional Disorders. Beginning with how the programme was started and it’s current progress which has led to the development of a treatment programme in how to handle patients with functional disorders for GP’s. As well as courses and in practice advisors the group have developed video’s for both the patient and the health care professional to deal with the psychological and well as pathological aspects of Functional Disorders. The afternoons discussion topic was “What makes a good Chiropractor and what kind of Chiropractor do I want to become” made for interesting debate. However we had to skip off prior to the end so that we did not have a repeat of last years regional event where the McTimoney delegates missed their plane home and had a very uncomfortable night in Charles D’Gaule airport!
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