The faith-based subcommittee for BRING (Bringing Regional Initiatives in Greater Acadiana), the regional workforce development project sponsored by the Lafayette [Louisiana] Workforce Investment Board, is launching a pilot project in partnership with the American College of Addictionology and Compulsive Disorders (ACACD) and the state of Louisiana to provide specialized chiropractic care as a means of giving addicts a drug-free pathway to re-entry into normal life.
The BRING subcommittee established a global chiropractic task force on May 22, 2010, under the direction of Jay Holder, DC, CAP, CASAP, DACACD, of the ACACD; Rick Nash, DC, the faith-based health coordinator and a local chiropractor in Lafayette; and Minister Tanelle Welff, chair of the BRING subcommittee. The task force was developed during a round-table discussion in Lafayette chaired by Minister Welff and Dr. Holder. The follow-up meeting on May 24 included a presentation by Dr. Holder to local government officials, faith-based leaders and members of the community. The current title of the project is the Incubation 1,000 Reentry Task Force Pilot Project.
State to Pay for Training
The pilot project, in partnership with the ACACD, will be responsible for the training and integration of modalities developed by Dr. Holder. Training will be held through the University of Louisiana Lafayette continuing-education department. In addition to payment of chiropractic services, the state of Louisiana has allocated up to $3,000 per doctor of chiropractic for the ACACD training. This is expected to more than cover the cost for the required courses and related equipment. Only chiropractors who have completed the training will be designated as service providers to the target population.
Project Background
The purpose of the chiropractic task force is to help BRING's "Operation Sweep" give second chances to often-forgotten homeless and addicted people. The initiative is the brainchild of Minister Welff, who was left homeless in America just over two years ago.
"My drug of choice was God," Minister Welff said. "Although I made it with the help of God, I realized that I had to come up with a drug-free pathway to reentry for our population. Chiropractic was the solution. During my research on my soon-to-be released book, Not This Time Devil, Dr. Rick Nash, a chiropractor from Mississippi, joined the progressive Baptist Church in Lafayette under the direction of our illustrious pastor, Louis Joiner Jr., and First Lady Shirley Joiner. During a conversation over our healthy eating habits and lifestyles, I asked him how chiropractic could assist with a drug-free pathway to reentry.
"Dr. Nash's' response was that the power that made the body heals the body. I immediately knew we were about to make the devil mad and save some lives. During our research on developing an educational module on healthy lifestyles and beating addictions, we came across this gift from God, Dr. Jay Holder.
"Dr. Jay Holder joined us over the weekend of May 21-24, 2010 in Lafayette ... to prove his commitment to see Operation Sweep and the chiropractic task force get established and reach maximum human potential for a drug-free pathway to reentry. Dr. Holder showed why combining chiropractic with auriculotherapy, amino acids, counseling and a comprehensive faith-based program like Operation Sweep may be the ground-breaking answer to all addictions including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, nicotine, eating disorders, sex and gambling.
"He said that chiropractic may be a bold and innovative solution to the alarming problem of addiction. An estimated 20% of the U.S. population suffers from some form of addiction and over 80% of all crime is traced to addiction or substance abuse."
The Chiropractic Opportunity
Homelessness and unemployment are serious societal concerns globally, but particularly in Lafayette and surrounding areas. Recent studies show Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the world and that a big part of this incarceration stems from lack of education, poverty, unemployment and substance abuse.
Dr. Nash is excited about being part of the project: "I guess the benefit to chiropractors is that they can see the idea of emptying the prisons; the idea that B.J. and D.D. [Palmer] had of emptying the prisons. It seems so literal, especially for me, being a chiropractor down here and to realize the rate of recidivism for clients in the system is so high - the highest in the world, from my understanding.
"With that, we have an opportunity to play a part and we have an opportunity to be on the positive side of something that's bigger than just one chiropractor. It's as big as can be. The benefit is an opportunity to do something good for chiropractic and for an individual - [we can help] each other.
"It's a place where there is an actual need. There's a vacuum there for people that have a heart to actually help. What we're doing here is we are extending ourselves beyond to help start the pilot program. No, it's not that a chiropractor is going to get $175 for each visit, but as the pilot program is initiated, we are doing what we can to place ourselves in a way to help and at a fee that is fair to all. Basically, we're supporting the idea of, again, emptying the prisons."
"For over 20 years the ACACD, which utilizes the torque release technique (TRT), has provided board certification in addiction & compulsive disorders to thousands of health care professionals," Dr. Holder said. "In addition to the opportunities above, this training presents doctors with opportunities to function in hospitals, residential treatment centers, outpatient programs, federal, state and county criminal justice programs, as well as meeting individual needs that present themselves in their private practice setting."
What role can chiropractic play in helping drug addicts? According to Dr. Holder: "The chiropractor is the best choice for the role as primary care provider for the addicted population because chiropractic is drug free. Further, the TRT chiropractic adjustment serves as a primary intervention resource in the field of addiction. Published research suggests that TRT's positive treatment outcomes are due to its non-linear, tonal model and therefore its mechanism is neurotransmitter-based as expressed in the brain reward cascade and reward deficiency syndrome (RDS) dynamic. Neurotransmitters are the vocabulary words of the nervous system. The nervous system is a communication system and all communication in the 3rd dimension (our universe) is tonal or frequency based. D.D. Palmer claimed he discovered chiropractic on tone."
The pilot project is expected to grow as the program matures. As Dr. Nash noted: "We're working on something bigger than ourselves."
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