Parker University exec calls for “social movement” for chiropractors

LAS VEGAS — The president of Dallas, Texas-based Parker University has posed a challenge to chiropractors to pursue a “social movement” that will unify doctors of chiropractic towards a common goal.

In his address to attendees at the recent Parker Seminars in Las Vegas,
Dr. Brian McAulay pointed to the significant gap between the high public
favourability for chiropractors and low usage of chiropractic services.
A recent Parker survey of 600 people showed 70 per cent are favourable
towards chiropractors, yet the annual usage of chiropractic among the
U.S. population is only eight per cent. In the same survey, 84 per cent
of respondents would support someone who wants to pursue a career
as a chiropractor.

“For some reason, the American public don’t
see the same link between spinal health and overall health,” McAulay
said. “We have got to fix that disconnect.”

The Parker president
said creating a social movement that promotes the value of chiropractic
would help narrow the high-favourability to low-usage gap that exist for
chiropractors. 

He offered some key things that need to happen
to facilitate the social movement for chiropractic. First and foremost
is tolerance.

“We have to increase tolerance of one another,” McAulay said. “We have to embrace our differences rather than separate us.”

Chiropractors also need a plan, McAulay said, a goal to increase use of chiropractic as a health-care service.

“What
if we as a profession committed to double the usage of chiropractors
from eight per cent to 16 per cent?” McAulay said, adding this would
mean increasing the number of people going to a chiropractor in America
from 25 million to 50 million.

He asked chiropractors to strive
to increase the number of patients they see this year, challenging them
to “fill your capacity.” And, if they are already at capacity and at a
comfortable level, “I challenge you to increase your capacity,” he said.

McAulay
suggests using daily affirmations to help chiropractors achieve this
goal, by adding the doubling of chiropractic usage or increasing the
number of patients to a chiropractor’s daily affirmations.

Last,
and most importantly, the chiropractic social movement should involve
service to the community by declaring a “day of service,” pursuing one
of the Parker Principles, “Loving service is my first technique.”

“Get involved in chiropractic service and think about what you can do in service,” McAulay said.

He
cited the annual Parker Serves as an example of chiropractors
volunteering to serve the community. Parker Serves is an annual two-day
event where volunteers donate their time helping out a deserving
organization in the community.

“Parker Serves can become ‘chiropractic serves,’” McAulay said.

This
year’s Parker Seminar in Las Vegas was held Jan. 9 to 11, attended by
chiropractors and chiropractic assistants from across the U.S. and
Canada. The conference featured more than 130 exhibitors and more than
30 educational sessions.

Leadership was this year’s conference
theme, and one of the keynote speakers, Monica Wofford, a leadership
development coach and speaker spoke about “contagious leadership” and the five key principles of leadership.

“Every single thing you do… as a leader, rubs off on other people,” Wofford said.

According to her, the five essentials of contagious leadership are:
• high confidence level, understanding who you are and who you are leading
• effective and positive communication
• goals that are SIMPLE (specific, inclusive, mindful, passionate, linear and excluding doubt)
• attitude, focusing on what people “do and could do and not who they are”
• taking action

Another key factor in becoming an effective leader is focusing on the followers, the people one leads.

“If you’re not focused on the people who follow you, then you’re be tremendously skilled (but) alone,” Wofford said.