Anti-vaccine chiropractors 26

The Chiropractic Board of Australia has had enough:

“We will not tolerate registered chiropractors giving misleading or unbalanced advice to patients, or providing advice or care that is not in the patient’s best interests,” chairman Phillip Donato said.

Dr Donato said chiropractors should only provide evidence-based treatment and anyone with concerns should report them. [Sydney Morning Herald August 9 2013]

Meet Jana Judd (Jana Kingston). I have included her “about” page so we can all keep reminding ourselves that this post is not about anti-vaccination zealot, Meryl Dorey. I want you to remember this: Judd is a doula as well as an anti-vaccine chiropractor. She is present at home-births, and she has continual access to pregnant mums and brand new babies. Judd conducts business at Hands on Health Chiropractic, in Queensland. Judd is, rightly, a member of the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia. Judd is a member of the anti-vaccination pressure group, the Australian Vaccination Network. Incredibly, she even says so on her bio. That takes some real moxy:

Judd 1 AVN member bio page

Judd shares this petition written by Meryl Dorey. You will notice the title would claim to be factual. Obviously, it isn’t:

Judd 9 Dorey petition kids killed and injured

Here Judd shares another AVN petition, claiming that parents are actually doing research when they come to their decisions not to immunise their children:

Judd 2 AVN petitionThe Greater Good. The anti-vaccination, movie-length advertisement. Poor form:

Judd 3 The Greater Good hadn't watched itRemember, Judd is a doula. An anti-vaccine doula. An anti-vaccine chiropractic doula. She has access to babies and new mums. Here she is sharing a post advocating against the Vitamin K shot. I can only surmise that Judd likes dead babies:

Judd 4 Vit K misinformationLike any good member of the AVN, Judd shares an ACTION ALERT. This is the one about the Healthy Kids Check, and how they will be just like the Stolen Generation:

Judd 5 Dorey Action Alert comparing Healthy School Checks to Stolen GenerationUltrasounds are dangerous. Everyone knows that, right?

Judd 6 ultrasounds harmful for babiesWhen Judd published her Facebook page, the first thing she thought was, “how can I really set this thing up, showing what I really think about babies. What should be my first link?” Here is her very first link:

Judd 7 joined FB posted AVN siteAnd just to finish off, here are the obligatory testimonials:

Judd 8 testimonialsShe is all yours, CBA. Here is your section on testimonials, just as a reminder:

Guidelines for advertising of regulated health services

5 What is unacceptable advertising?

This section is intended to provide a clear indication of the
type of advertising of services that the boards consider to
be unacceptable. Where examples are provided, they are
intended to assist practitioners and other persons who
advertise regulated health services to comply with the
advertising provisions of the National Law. They are not
intended to be exhaustive.

To comply with s. 133 of the National Law and these
guidelines, advertising of services must not:

(d) use testimonials or purported testimonials

Judd 10 Dorey Fry

About reasonable hank

I'm reasonable, mostly.
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10 Responses to Anti-vaccine chiropractors 26

  1. Andy says:

    It would be interesting to compile a list of the universities where all these chiros trained.

    • AnotherReasonableChiro says:

      It would appear to me from the individuals exposed (so far!) that this is not an institution-specific problem. One study (US) indicates a worsening of the anti-vax mentality from first year to later years despite an overwhelming positive attitude towards vaccination from the teaching faculty. In my view, the teaching of chiropractic in Aus has some flaws but not to the extent of being anti-science or anti-vax. At least part of the problem is that there is little or no institutional support or career pathways for chiropractors. So when young graduates find themselves in the big wide world embattled, possibly ostracised and denigrated, they are very vulnerable to the seductive open arms of the uber-confident charismatic ‘sales’ pitch of the hard core true believers. It is perhaps worth mentioning that whilst the extent of the anti-vax stance within the chiropractic profession is shameful the majority of chiropractors are actually on the rational side. The internal and external factors that have allowed this professional embarrassment to continue are complex. Believe it or not, in recent times the CAA policy has shifted a (tiny) bit. It is completely inadequate at present but it may be possible with ‘encouragement’ to be closer to the COCA policy. This would help drag the largest number of practitioners into the real world. This would have to be a positive given the 1,500,000+ consultations that CAA members conduct each week . Part of that encouragement has to come from the CBA (keep it up Hank) but partly it also has to involve a strengthening of the academic foundation and its institutional integration. In my opinion the problem would only get worse if chiro education is relegated out of the university system.

      • AnotherReasonableChiro says:

        Oops – 1,500,000 should be 150,000 p/wk

      • Andy says:

        I think we might need more than a sample of 28 to see if there’s a correlation 🙂 But what got me wondering was the fact that Murdoch is often mentioned for its evidence-based teachings. Is it special in that regard?

        Also, do the university courses offer any training to specifically address the problem so as to prime the graduate to deal with the anti-vax, anti-science pressure they will apparently come under in the field?

        Also, I’ve little faith that a CAA policy change would achieve anything useful since it appears to be anti-vax to the core. The anti-vax problem in the profession has not been a secret for a very long time but no one seems to be doing anything about it from within (apart from announcing policies but, apparently, not policing or prosecuting them).

    • AnotherReasonableChiro says:

      Hi Andy, further reply to your comments below – ARC

  2. AnotherReasonableChiro says:

    I’m glad you went to the source for that study reference. I did not quote it to prove anything, only to offer a sliver of insight into one aspect of the problem. The commentary article in which it was, most recently mentioned, is of more interest as it was written by someone who does hold some sway of opinion in the chiropractic world.

    There are certainly differences in the various chiro teaching faculties around Australia. It depends on the quality of the teaching personnel (of course) and the institutional support framework. In Melbourne the original chiropractic course set up and funded by chiropractors was taken into Preston Institute of Technology which became Phillip Institute. When this was subsumed by RMIT the faculty of chiropractic was placed under the auspices of the Chinese Medicine Department which was headed then by a medical doctor with training and interest in Chinese Medicine but no experience or interest in chiropractic (or its funding). Currently the head of Health Sciences (chiro,osteo, chinese medicine, nursing,”wellness” disability services and psych) at RMIT is a Chinese Medicine Practitioner. In my view this does not encourage academic vigour or create professional confidence. Without decent professional/academic/research pathways and models there is a dearth of quality people capable of chairing an independent and rigorous department, hence there are definitely some people in such positions who should NOT be there (big fish small pond). Murdoch seems to have some excellent well credentialed staff and may be the best example. To my knowledge and experience (i.e. n=1 and back in the day many years ago) there was no specific undergraduate teaching or preparation for what comes after in terms of recognising nutjobbery when you see it and calling it.
    My point being however, that given the scale of the profession, removal from universities as some are calling for is probably not helpful in achieving the aim of eliminating the anti-vax issue.

    With regard to the CAA, you may be right. The CAA is a strange beast that sees itself as a broad church and like any professional association is a trade union and advocate for its members. It does some good grunt work in the bureaucratic necessities of the modern world and there are many rational individuals in the ranks. But, it is often the zealots who are more likely to devote the time and effort required to gain board positions and turn up to vote at meetings etc. A stronger (enforced ) stance from the CBA will certainly help steer CAA policy. At this point I don’t think it quite time to hand over the keys of the asylum (not that I hold any real influence – I’m just one guy)

    • Andy says:

      I don’t think the suggestion of kicking it out of universities is intended to solve the anti-vax issue within the profession. It’s intended to remove the respect that goes along with graduating from such a facility. When you combine the anti-vax ideology with that level of respect, it can only make matters worse.

  3. ARC, thanks for that insight.
    To the best of your knowledge, is it true or untrue that RMIT students are sitting exams in Applied Kinesiology and Cranial adjusting?
    I would hate to find out I have either passed, or failed, a subject that is completely based in woo woo. What a waste of money.

    • Andy says:

      The money won’t be wasted given that they go out and set up shop selling those services to equally gullible customers. It’s their money that’s wasted.

      But it is in this respect that I can actually feel some sympathy for practitioners of nonsense. When our universities teach it, why should we expect the students to know it’s all bollocks? It’s like expecting a physics graduate to assume thermodynamics is nonsense and that they should ignore everything they were taught about it.

      • AnotherReasonableChiro says:

        Hi Rogue, I have no specific knowledge of the curriculum and its assessment at RMIT. I don’t believe that it has sunk that far and if you look at the teaching staff list there are some good people in there who would not go for the bullshit. My concern is that the erosion of funding and the suppressive environment within an inappropriate department destroys any chance of creating better integration into the health care system.

        Andy, your analogy of thermodynamics is interesting because at the end of the day, those students would know that thermodynamics works even if someone tried to tell them that what they had been taught was bollocks. So there’s the rub (so to speak), chiros know that something of what they do works. There is a sound rationale for a physical intervention when there is evidence of compromised spinal segmental function with the corollary proprioceptive/sensorimotor deficit , disorganised spinal cord reflexes and disturbed segmental control.
        Believe it or not there has been some excellent basic science research done and ongoing (some even here in Aus!) by chiros in conjunction with medical researchers but also as lead authors and published in the likes of Spine, J Electromyogr Kinesiol. , Arch Phys Med Rehabil., J Biomech, Eur Spine J. (I grabbed this list of from a sample of articles from the last six years).

        The trouble really arises when you might be doing the correct thing for the wrong reason because if you then link that to some other synergistic and similarly deluded notions you end up keeping Hank away from his day job.

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