Better Together Integrated health clinics prize prevention and collaboration By JASON YOUMANS
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here’s a change afoot in how we understand what constitutes quality health care. Slowly, but ever so surely, the notion that prevention is the best medicine is making inroads in a medical world that once prized short-term treatment over the simple act of living well. In Victoria, this shift is evident in the increasing number of health-care facilities operating under the premise that to equip clients with the knowledge and skills they need to avoid hospitalization makes sense not just for the individual, but can also take pressure off a medical system burdened by inadequate financial and staff resources. These so-called “integrated” health facilities are characterized by medical doctors—or other “traditional” health professionals—working alongside and under the same roof as any number of now not-so-alternative health practitioners, where collaboration is the key to keeping patients out of hospital beds, off prescription drugs and moving steadily toward a more healthy lifestyle. Patients visiting Dr. Divi Chandna’s office at the Shanti Health Centre, for example, could still find themselves prescribed a bottle of pills for what ails them, but more often than not, the physician-cum-yoga instructor will suggest her clients report to any one of the therapeutic and restorative yoga classes offered at Shanti or Bikram Hot Yoga Victoria, perhaps supplemented by a visit to the staff acupuncturist. Chandna says during her early years as a physician she grew disillusioned with prescribing medications to patients while rarely having an opportunity to explore the root of their health problems. After her own immersion in the yoga world and enjoying the benefits it brought to her life, she realized the practice could go a long way to healing her clients too. “My approach is—and most doctors will tell you that 99
percent of what we see in the hospital and offices is related to stress and imbalance in our lives—that rather than just going the treatment approach, which is, ‘Okay, take a pill,’ we say ‘Step back and let’s deal with the stress that’s underlying it, and let’s get that balanced and get the balance back in your life and you’ll be happier.’ And that’s exactly what I’ve seen.” Dr. Steven Gordon is a co-owner of the Cook Street Village Health Clinic. Under its roof, clients can visit a family and cosmetic physician, chiropractor, naturopathic doctor, osteopathic practitioner, a Chinese medicine acupuncturist, an athletic and physiotherapist, massage therapists and a medical esthetician. Gordon says changing societal norms have forced changes within the medical establishment, and integrated health care is the natural upshot of this trend. “What happened in the generation after the baby boomers is that we are aggressively seeking a high quality of life.” says Gordon. “And particularly the younger generation are prepared to spend the time and the money to make sure that they are balanced, high-functioning, disciplined individuals. Along with that shift goes the need to put some time into health maintenance, instead of just disease prevention.” Society, of course, moves more quickly than our bureaucratic institutions, and the province’s Medical Services Plan is a long way from covering many of the naturopathic and alternative forms of medicine that are part of the integrated health model. That means patients must dig into their own wallets to finance these services. A five-treatment acupuncture package at Gordon’s clinic, for example, goes for $250. But people are coming around to the idea that good health sometimes comes at a small price, says Gordon. “Honestly, the amount of money you need to spend to get yourself feeling physically better is way, way less than a car payment,” he says. “People spend crazy amounts of money on car payments, but they won’t spend $100 a month on health maintenance? Well, would you rather have a good car or a good body? You choose.” Gordon adds that clients truly are beginning to take charge of their own health. “I often get people coming to me and saying, ‘Listen, I don’t actually feel unwell in any way, shape or form, but I want to make use of the expertise available in this facility of yours, to see whether I can do better,’ which is a completely different philosophy. What we know now is that almost every outcome in every disease is dictated by how early we find out about it, and we now also have a bunch of expertise that helps us prevent disease, before we even get it.”
It’s Time to Feel Good!
Sukhi Lalli has your integrated health at heart
Local pharmacist Sukhi Lalli has been operating the Lalli Care Clinic—a “collaborative integrated clinic”—for the past four years. At Lalli’s clinic, clients can visit pharmacists, a registered massage therapist, an acupuncturist and a chiropractor. Lalli maintains that housing multiple services under one roof allows his team to share ideas and suggestions when helping clients toward their health objectives. “I’ve been a pharmacist since 1975 and I quite often came across that I could help a person to a certain point, and then beyond that I couldn’t. So, even if I recommended they go see an acupuncturist, or go see a chiropractor, I never got to talk to the chiropractor or the acupuncturist, or massage therapist or any of the other practitioners they might go to.” If Lalli had it his way, everyone would visit their health professional periodically for a wellness assessment, to determine where they sit on the health scale and what changes could be made in their lives to boost their health indicators. These assessments would offer a strong incentive for clients to adopt healthier lifestyles to ward off illness. Of course, many people still seek medical attention only when things take a steep turn for the worse. But with professionals like Dr. Divi Chandna becoming more commonplace, the preventative medicine revolution is gathering steam. “I turn 40 this year and I’m healthier than I was in my 20s,” says Chandna. “And I want to be healthier in my 60s than I was in my 40s. That’s my goal. So, I think we’re getting there.” M
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