Chiropractors And Physios Resolve Turf War

2 November 2007

Chiropractors And Physios
Resolve Turf War For Patient Betterment

Chiropractors and physiotherapists treating back and neck problems have competed in a “turf war” for more than 50 years.

Each profession has claimed superiority of its own treatment philosophy and techniques compared with the other.

But an armistice has been declared and announced at a recent conference in Melbourne attended by representatives of the two adversarial factions.

Lawrence Dott, CEO of the McKenzie Institute International, says following requests from chiropractors and subsequent negotiations between the Institute and the Australasian College of Chiropractic and Osteopathy and also the National University of Health Sciences in the USA, doctors of Chiropractic and Osteopathy will now be admitted to the Institute’s education programme.

The Institute is headquartered in New Zealand where the technique was developed by physiotherapist Robin McKenzie 51 years ago.

Mr Dott said chiropractors in the United States became aware of the importance of the McKenzie system in the 1990s and since that time the numbers of chiropractors wishing to attend the Institute’s education programme have mushroomed.

“The McKenzie concept of self treatment, now practised worldwide, is attractive to many clinicians involved in the treatment of spinal problems,” Mr Dott says.

“We believe that if chiropractors and osteopaths wish to learn the McKenzie Method it will do nothing but good for the back pain problem worldwide. As Robin McKenzie has often said ‘If it is possible to teach a patient to treat his or her own back, every patient is entitled to that education and every clinician should be obliged to provide it.”, Mr Dott says.

Robin McKenzie, who was awarded life membership of the Australasian Institute of Osteopaths and Chiropractors at the conference, is delighted with the development and describes it as “an international breakthrough” especially in the United States.

“The McKenzie Method is the first to cross the interdisciplinary boundaries,” Mr McKenzie says.

During the conference, Mr McKenzie was invited to deliver both an informal after-dinner presentation about the technique, and a formal presentation the following morning.

“After telling them all about it in the evening, I wondered what else I could add the next day. So I called up a member of the audience – a chiropractor who had suffered chronic sciatica pain in both legs for seven years following a motor accident,” Mr McKenzie says.

“Most of the chiropractors in the audience knew the man and many had treated him. When after 20 minutes of the McKenzie Method treatment he was better, they were dumbstruck.”

“Nothing is more convincing than a practical demonstration,” Mr McKenzie says.

Courses specifically for Chiropractors and Osteopaths will be presented by the Institute commencing early 2008.

ENDS

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