Take Charge of Your Health Care with an Integrative Approach

by 
Margaret Kinnevy, for the Shuttle

Health is a resource. Taking responsibility for one’s health not only serves oneself, it is a community-serving action.

We turn to providers from various traditions, such as Western medicine, Vedic medicine and Chinese medicine for healing. We turn to modalities outside of medicine that heal or keep us well, like a movement class or a special interest group of peers to help us with mind/body aches and unease. We share our concerns with the massage therapist, doctor, acupuncturist, nurse, physical therapist, 12- step group, yoga teacher, counselor, herbalist, personal trainer, coach, sound healer, parent, friend, barber, cashier. 

Check out the chart from the Institute of Medicine and the Bravewell Collaborative. It suggests an evolved way to have medical relationships. As a companion to that, here are a few suggestions:

Engage only in mutually respectful medical relationships. Choose healers who see you as whole and support your unique healing path, not theirs. Create your own unique plan of care. Be responsible for all your choices. Own your decisions. Happiness and community engagement are two of the biggest predictors of well-being. Reach out, find your circles of community and have fun!

CURRENT MEDICAL PRACTICE evolving to . . . INTEGRATIVE PRACTICE
Health is most often considered to be the absence of disease. Health is seen as a vital state of physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual well being, which enables a person to be engaged in life.
The physician tends to act as the authority figure. The physician acts as a partner in the patient’s care.
The patient is encouraged to follow the physician’s directions. The empowered and informed patient is an integral part of the decision-making process.
Interventions are often directed only toward the treatment of a specific disease or trauma. The interventions are designed to treat the illness as well as the whole person, addressing physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual factors that influence health and disease.
A patient’s stress level is not always taken into consideration or treated. Patients are taught how to recognize, manage and decrease stress.
A patient’s dietary habits are largely ignored. Patients are given nutritional counseling; food is understood to have a significant influence on health and disease.
Social determinants of health such as unemployment, abuse, neglect and financial status are not always given consideration. Social determinants of health such as unemployment, abuse, neglect, and financial status are considered in the care.
Environmental influences are rarely addressed. Environmental influences on health and healing are investigated, considered and addressed in the care process.
Care is not always coordinated across providers. Care is coordinated across providers.
Health plans are rarely created. Each patient is given an individualized health plan based on his or her unique needs and circumstances.
Many decisions are based on the needs of the health-care system. Decisions are based on the needs of the patient.
Prevention and health promotion are not always practiced. Prevention and health promotion are emphasized.
Only conventional interventions are considered. All appropriate therapeutic approaches are used.

Margaret Kinnevy RN, LAc, is an acupuncturist, writer, and lecturer on the longevity teachings of Chinese medicine. She is a lover of all things botanical. Her services range from educating parents on preconception health, to providing comfort and ease in the dying process. She runs a sliding scale clinic for women only where she addresses all health issues across the life cycle with non-drug options such as acupuncture, qigong, abdominal massage.

Views expressed here are those of the author, not necessarily the Health & Wellness Committee, and are not meant to be a substitute for consulting your doctor.