The Healthcare Hierarchy
The concept of the Healthcare Hierarchy is a simple idea that illustrates a great shift in how we envision health and healthcare.
Elsewhere on this site we’ve introduced and explained the role of a Wellness & Prevention paradigm and a deeply inter-related philosophy of health that drive a better approach to health – for you!
I think it is worth your time to understand this critical, relevant and useful information so you can engage with me better and get the most out of my professional support – so please follow the links above if you’ve not read these pages yet!
Check out the Why Us? page to see how these come together – the model I envision for you AND for this planet – where we achieve a profound change in the focus of healthcare.
Why work on health only when you don’t have it anymore?
It just doesn’t make sense!
Our model creates a context where chiropractic care sits front and centre – because we are proactive healthcare professionals perfectly situated to operate as the gatekeepers or ‘central hub’ from which to coordinate healthcare services and referrals.
In this model we still celebrate and honour traditional western medicine – its capacity to work in acute accident, trauma and emergency situations is unparalleled. These skills are vital and very much needed.
Yet it also shifts the focus of health and healthcare more into a realm of self-responsibility and making proactive change in one’s life to reduce the likelihood of crisis (sickness, disease) eventuating.
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The 'Healthcare Hierarchy'
Level 3: CRISIS CARE
If you are doing LEVEL 1 and LEVEL 2 of the hierarchy well, you are always working toward a more vibrant life and optimal wellbeing. As a result, the benefit is that you can usually avoid LEVEL 3. We can call this ‘crisis-care’ and also ‘sickness care’
This ‘pointy end’ of the stick is sadly much of the focus of what we usually call ‘healthcare’ in our society today. Of course the professionals that are skilled in this area are brilliant at what they do, they are essential to our lives and they are there to be consulted if you ever need it, when you ever need it!
Level 2: TRUE HEALTH-CARE
At the next (MIDDLE) level of the hierarchy is what I call TRUE HEALTHCARE.
This is the regular, consistent use of healthcare professionals MAINLY when you are symptom-free, to find underlying, asymptomatic dysfunction or inefficiencies; these people help you to correct the causes and promote healing before this dysfunction becomes more serious – AND they teach you or expose you to skills and knowledge to enhance your SELF-care.
How regularly will depend on your goals and the type of care being provided – yet these experts are facilitators and coaches who help YOU to help YOU!!
Level 1: SELF-CARE
At the BASE of this model is ‘self-care’
The idea is that you spend MOST of your time, effort, energy and resources on learning about the REQUIREMENTS for an ideal life and then, critically, IMPLEMENTING strategies to fulfil or achieve those REQUIREMENTS. This is about you maximising your own health and wellbeing. It is critical to appreciate the importance of self-responsibility in living well – it IS the most important ingredient.
My focus it to help the broader community understand the potential benefits of this type of healthcare, to actively work toward changing our societal / cultural teachings that focus on sickness and treatment and to re-frame priorities to help the people of this world flourish.
