Please stop for a moment and try to think of one major national interdisciplinary organization of health care professionals in which chiropractors are accepted and welcomed as equals. Think of one organization where other health care providers can get continuing education credits for attending presentations organized by chiropractors.
If you have a hard time thinking of one, you need to think about the American Public Health Association (APHA), the world's oldest and largest public health association, with more than 55,000 affiliated members.
According to the APHA Web site (www.apha.org), chiropractic health care "enhances public health through the application of chiropractic knowledge to the community by conservative care, disease prevention and health promotion." Chiropractors have been a great source of strength within the APHA, serving on policy-making bodies, national task forces, and even on the executive board. Chiropractic members have also played a significant role in the function and service of the Chiropractic Health Care Section (CHC) of the APHA. The CHC, formed in 1995, has been the home of chiropractors within the APHA and has been chaired by many notable figures, including Drs. Mitchell Haas, Rand Baird, Lisa Killinger, Christine Goertz, and Elaine Cooperstein, the current chair.
Despite past successes and participation, chiropractic's role in the APHA is not guaranteed. The association is membership-driven, and chiropractic representation depends on membership. If the CHC is not active, growing and larger than 250 members, it can be dissolved. Current membership is approximately 280, which keeps the section under the constant risk of dissolution. Who needs chiropractors? The Chiropractic Health Care Section of the American Public Health Association does. We need you!
Imagine how chiropractic practice might be different, nationally and globally, if there were no chiropractors within the APHA:
- In the late 1960s, the APHA passed a policy recommending revocation of chiropractic licensure in all states and elimination of all public funding supporting chiropractic, and called on friends of public health to eliminate this threat to the public health. It was chiropractors who joined the APHA and were able to reverse this policy after several years of work. If the policy had stood, and this politically influential group continued to pursue revoking chiropractic licensure - what would be different today? How much do we owe those chiropractors who joined the APHA and reversed the policy?
- After 10 years of work inside the APHA, chiropractors finally received official representation in 1995. Those 10 years of consistent effort did not go unnoticed within the APHA. In 1996, when the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) applied for official relations to the World Health Organization (WHO), it was the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) - of which the APHA was a major member and of which a former APHA executive director is now president - that offered support to the WFC. The application was successful and the WHO granted official relations to the WFC. Without the global representation for chiropractic that began with the grassroots efforts of chiropractors within the APHA, what would be different today?
- The WHO recently endorsed chiropractic education guidelines to promote licensure of chiropractic around the globe. The connection among chiropractors in the APHA to the WFPHA, the WHO and the WFC has been noted. If chiropractors had not been politically active within the APHA since the 1980s, would this global support of chiropractic licensure exist? What would be different today?
It all started with the APHA and chiropractors who were committed to chiropractic, public health and political action.
The Chiropractic Health Care Section of APHA still needs you. The section could still be dissolved and chiropractic could lose this important and meaningful representation. If the scenarios above have helped you see how chiropractic practice would be different without the APHA, it's time to join. For information about becoming an APHA and CHC member, contact me at
or visit www.apha.org and click on "Member Login/Join." Be sure to select "Primary: Chiropractic Health Care" as your "Primary Section."
Who needs chiropractors, anyway? The Chiropractic Health Care Section of the American Public Health Association does. We need you. Join now!
Resources
- Egan JT, Baird R, and Zaynab-Killinger L. Chiropractic within the American Public Health Association, 1984-2005: pariah, to participant, to parity. Chiropractic History, 2006;26(1):97-117.
- Vear HJ. The anatomy of a policy reversal: The A.P.H.A. and chiropractic, 1969-1983. Chiropractic History, 2987;7(2):17-22.
Dr. Jonathon Egan is a graduate of New York Chiropractic College and current chief of staff of the NYCC Campus Health Center. Formerly a clinician at the VA facility in Rochester, N.Y., he now chairs the Seneca County Board of Health.