Around 4 am Sunday morning a couple of months ago I was reminded how grateful I am that there is a crisis care medical system in place. I was woken to a man out on the road painfully yelling "help". It turns out he had been in a car accident down the road and appeared to have a few fractured ribs and possible a broken nose. I immediately called an ambulance and did what I could to make him warm, comfortable and safe but felt quite helpless and was very relieved when the ambulance finally arrived. It got me thinking.
It reminded me that I am a wellness care practitioner and not a crisis care practitioner. I mean sure I see people with acute back pain, migraines or even infantile colic and can sometimes help all of these and more. But my aim is not to treat these conditions and I certainly don't do broken ribs or noses. What I specialise in and what I am good at is helping people get and stay well and teaching people how to live a healthy lifestyle so that they don't get sick and I am very glad that there are people out there who are well trained and knowledgeable about dealing with those acute crises.
People often assume that because I am a wellness care practitioner and spend lots of time teaching people about wellness, prevention and spreading the virtues of natural therapies that I don't believe in crisis care medicine. This couldn't be further from the truth. I am in awe of what can be done to help people who have gotten themselves into a bad way in terms of their health be it via trauma, adverse reactions or toxic lifestyles. I do however believe that out health care system could do a much better job at prevention and tends to start crisis care long before a true crisis is reached.
Our health care system only spends around 2% of their budget on prevention. A terribly small amount when it is considered that prevention is the only true way to stay healthy. What money we do define as having spent on prevention is often spent on early detection rather than true prevention of disease.
We also tend to jump straight to drug and surgery in interventions, both of which carry known side effects before exploring other alternatives, even when there is evidence to suggest that may be a better option.
The key lesson to be learnt here is that both the crisis care model and the wellness care model can and indeed must coexist. They actually have different goals and aims and should be used in entirely different circumstances. One is designed to help to survive a crisis, the other is oriented around helping make sure that crisis never appears. The sooner people and practitioners on both sides of the fence realise this, the better off we all will be. If I ever have a car crash, fracture some ribs and break my nose I will not be heading to my local chiropractor. I will be calling and ambulance and I will be once again very happy when they arrive.
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