The National Safety Council, a nongovernmental, not-for-profit public service organization, has joined forces with Occupational Fitness Technologies, Inc. (OFT), a chiropractic industrial consulting group. The National Safety Council and OFT are now providing an on-site educational program, "Back Power," that emphasizes chiropractic care for occupational low back pain and injury prevention.
Back Power, developed in Canada by a chiropractor and a medical doctor, is a testing and exercise intervention program that requires no special equipment and is consistent with chiropractic's underlying principles and philosophies. Occupational Fitness Technologies markets the program to companies, establishes a DC as the musculoskeletal injury expert, and offers chiropractic assistants, certified as trainers by the National Safety Council, to deliver the exercise program. Having the CAs give the in-plant training frees the DC to take the position of primary provider, handling problems and questions concerning individual employees' back problems.
The National Safety Council's manager of Back Power, Gale McKie, and David Rosenblum, DC, president of OFT, organized a seminar in March to give DCs and CAs hands-on training to participate in the program. The training includes anatomy and physiology, the National Back Fitness Test, back and muscle maintenance exercises, assessment of participants' abilities, and effective teaching and evaluation of training competency.
Gale McKie commented that at least one organization using the program has recorded a 50 percent reduction in time lost from back injury. John Kennedy, national manager of agency development for the National Safety Council, said implementing Back Power to industry has been very successful. "The Council hopes chiropractors will become a formidable force in the delivery of industrial back pain prevention," Mr. Kennedy added.
"The public's growing awareness of chiropractic's success in the treatment of musculoskeletal injuries, and industry's increasing need to control workers' compensation costs has resulted in a highly favorable climate for chiropractors entering into occupational consulting," said OFT's President Dr. Rosenblum. "By marketing 'low tech' back injury prevention and rehabilitation programs to corporate safety and human resources, we have been able to circumvent the resistance normally encountered with insurance companies, managed care, and the medical divisions."
For more information about the Back Power program, call OFT in Woodstock, New York at 1-800-348-4967 or (914) 679-3220.
