Anti-vaccine chiropractors 66 – adjusting a 3 day old baby in hospital

First off, a quick note: readers will notice that this post is entitled Anti-vaccine chiropractors 66. Where are the other ones, from 51-65? They were previously named Anti-vaccine chiropractors redux 1-15.  As I thought the original Anti-vaccine chiropractors series would forever cease at number 50, and that I wouldn’t be continuing with that series, I started up the “redux” series, when the evidence kept rolling on in. To save confusion I’ve removed the redux series, added them to the original 50, and decided that we’ll soldier on towards the magical 100. Hopefully there isn’t a need. But, you know…

Today’s featured businessperson is Victorian registered chiropractor, Belinda Owen. Owen owns a business called Passion Chiropractic, in Melbourne. She is, of course, a member of the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia.

Owen’s about webpage notes:

She practices gentle techniques such as SOT, Activator, Cranial and is Webster certified. Belinda has a special interest in pregnancy, babies and family health

For  look at the discredited Webster Technique, I highly recommend reading this 2014 article by Dr Mick Vagg.

We find that Owen does indeed have a very special interest in pregnancy and babies. On December 8 2012, Owen posted this photograph of herself adjusting a 3 day old infant in a Melbourne hospital:

Owen 1 hospital baby adjustment redacted

We now know – with several precedents now published – that this activity is in breach of the Chiropractic Board of Australia’s Code of Conduct for Chiropractors. Again, I will include a list of common sections of the CoC, and other pertinent codes and guidelines, in an addendum at the end of this post; this addendum can be easily copypasted for use in complaints to the regulator, AHPRA.

By Owen’s own admission, on her website’s babies page, we know that this is likely not the only time that the adjustment of a baby has happened in a health care facility. Describing the disreputable chiropractic birth trauma argument, for the adjustment of neonates, Owen notes [my bold]:

Giving birth is an incredible experience. It can also be quite stressful for mum and traumatic for baby. If you think about it, it makes sense…

Even during normal births there is compression and stretching of baby’s delicate spine…

These can all have serious implications on your baby’s spinal and nervous system, and have serious consequences to their development. Therefore, it is very important to have your chiropractor check your baby as early as day one. At Passion Chiropractic in Elwood we have treated many babies on the day they were born.

If you really want to do some swearing at your screen, check out Owen’s entire pregnancy web page. Here is an example:

Chiropractic adjustments during pregnancy help clear the nervous system of interference, ensuring you and your baby are as healthy as possible.

I have kept copies of these two web pages, in case they go missing.

One extra concerning item jumped out from Owen’s babies web page. Embedded is a YouTube video, by Jennifer Barham-Floreani, which is basically a toxins gambit set to music. And this is one of the sources of toxins, according to JBF:

Owen 34 website babies page JBF video so many vaccines

Which brings us to evidence that Owen is an anti-vaccination activist, albeit more quietly in the last few years.

In 2009 we find this Tweet, which links to the amusingly inept Bronwyn Hancock of Sydney’s Vaccination Information Service:

Owen 36 2009 tweet link to Hancock

Readers would remember Bronwyn Hancock “drowning” at the hands of her friend, not-a-medical-doctor Viera Scheibner, in June 2011:

VIERA: [to Hancock] Don’t answer things that you don’t know enough about, OK – don’t answer them. You were drowning. So let’s call a spade a spade.

ELLEN FANNING: Why would she be drowning?

VIERA: Because she hasn’t got the extent of knowledge that I have.

ELLEN FANNING: If she hasn’t got the extensive knowledge, why on earth is she writing these articles on the website?

VIERA: Maybe you have a point then, yes. That’s right. Maybe you have a point there, okay.

On July 27 2012, Owen made this stunning claim about vaccines:

yes if everybody knew what went into vaccinations they might rethink their choice! x

Owen 6 antivax post April 24 2012

Owen was warned by a friend about the CBA’s 2013 press release, a couple of days after it was issued:

Owen 7 warned of antivax CBA 2013

Owen promotes the anti-vaccination chiropractic organisation, the ICPA:

Owen 19 ICPA

And she even included the Raggedy Ann story, in 2014:

Owen 20 Raggedy Anne

Looking at The Wayback  Machine we also  find that Owen ‘s website contained links to Bronwyn Hancock’s rabid anti-vaccination organisation, VIS,  for at least 2009-2011.

From June 7 2009:

Owen 41 Wayback June 7 2009 VIS links

From  January 9 2011:

Owen 42 Wayback January 9 2011

Owen is also an anti-fluoride activist, who just so happens to sell water filtration devices!

Here is the infamous Harvard study, cited by anti-fluoridation liars across the world. October 2015:

Owen 40 fluoride

This is from 2015:

Owen 12 anti fluoride

This one is from 2014:

Owen 27 fluoride

The final image is also from 2014:

Owen 30 fluoride

Seriously. Posting anti-fluoridation lies and selling filtration devices.

Owen also makes the usual, illegal, subluxationist chiropractic claims about immune boosting, which have already been found to be in breach of The National Law, thanks to Tim Shakespeare.

This is another Tweet from 2009:

Owen 39 tweet ICPA kids improved immune function

From July 2015:

Owen 14 immune increase

From July 2014:

Owen 24 immune function

From July 2014, it’s Mr 200-400%:

Owen 26 immune funstion boost 200 400

From June 2014, this is almost exactly the same claims as the one Shakespeare had to remove:

Owen 28 flu adjustments increased immunity

Owen provides us with the expected  claims about subluxations and related nerve interference.

It’s a pandemic. Of a thing which isn’t a thing. From September 2015:

Owen 11 subluxation pandemic

Then there is this atrocity, from 2012:

Owen 32 chicken egg subluxations

The cranial adjustment, from 2012:

Owen 33 dentist jaw rest of body

And, cranials again, in this 2012 Tweet:

Owen 38 tweet cranial adjustment

Get your cranials checked. Your cranials.

Owen also  makes the usual raft of discredited claims about chiropractic and children.

From 2015, we get colic:

Owen 16 colic

From 2015, the treatment of ear infections:

Owen 18 ear infections

Sometimes  I just cannot even…

Owen claims to treat the “bad feelings” in her own son. This is an excruciating breach of The National Law. This is a regulated health profession. In 2015:

Owen 20 adjust son for bad feelings

The treatment of allergies and sinus, with immune boosting claims. From 2014:

Owen 23 allergy sinus

And, of course, bedwetting. From 2012:

Owen 31 bedwetting

In 2014, Owen posted this…thing…about the paleo diet in the treatment of autism:

Owen 29 paleo diet and autism

And, in this 2015 post, Owen posted about the link between ultrasounds and autism. I swear I could hear my sonographer-friend’s carotids pop from here:

Owen 17 autism ultrasound

Owen also posts hideous cancer treatment claims. From Natural  News, in 2015:

Owen 15 grape seeds cancer NN

And let’s not forget the threats posed by mobile phone usage. From Collective Evolution, in 2015:

Owen 13 CE mobile phone radiation

We should also note that the use of comparative advertising is a breach of The National Law.

From 2014:

Owen 21 comparative adv

From 2014, on the risk of stroke.Note that there is no mandatory adverse events reporting system for chiropractic in Australia. How Owen can post this with a straight face has me confused:

Owen 22 comparative stoke

From 2014:

Owen 25 comparative

Finally, the ubiquitous testimonial, seen in plague proportions on chiropractic Facebook pages. This is illegal. From 2014:

Owen 8 testimonial

I believe that all of the preceding evidence constitutes multiple breaches of multiple sections of the Chiropractic Board of Australia’s codes and guidelines.

I also believe that the Chiropractic Board of Australia does not have the ability to regulate the chiropractic profession. The job is just too big. The breaches are persistent and consistent. And there is no deterrence for rogue chiropractors – who are no small minority – who wave off the private, feather-tap requests of the CBA. The CBA would be more successful should it turn its attention to catching water in a net.

Buzz breaches

______________________________________

Addendum

Code of conduct for chiropractors.

1.2 Professional values and qualities

[Practitioners] have a duty to keep their skills and knowledge up to date, refine and develop their clinical judgement as they gain experience, and contribute to their profession.

All practitioners have a responsibility to recognise and work within the limits of their competence, scope and areas of practice. Areas of practice vary according to different roles; for example, health practitioners, education providers, researchers and managers will all have quite different competencies and scopes of practice.

2.1 Providing good care. Introduction

a. appropriately assessing the patient, taking into account their history (history includes relevant psychological, social and cultural aspects), views and conducting an appropriate physical examination

b. ensuring that the diagnosis/clinical impression is appropriate, relevant, justifiable and based on sound clinical reasoning

d. formulating and implementing a reasonable management plan (including providing treatment/care and advice and, where relevant, arranging investigations and liaising with other treating practitioners)

2.2 Good practice

a. recognising and working within the limits of the chiropractor’s competence and scope and area of practice, which may change over time

b. maintaining adequate knowledge and skills to provide safe and effective care, including providing treatment/care and advice and where relevant, arranging investigations and liaising with, or referring to, other health professionals

e. considering the balance of benefit and harm in all clinical management decisions

g. providing treatment/care options based on the best available information and practising in an evidence-based context and not being influenced by financial gain or incentives

h. ensuring that services offered are provided with the best possible skill, care and competence

m. ensuring that the chiropractor’s personal views do not adversely affect the care of their patients, and

n. evaluating practice and the decisions made and action taken in providing good care.

3.4 Confidentiality and privacy

b. seeking consent from patients before disclosing or sharing information

g. ensuring that all staff are aware of the need to respect the confidentiality and privacy of patients and refrain from discussing patients in a non-professional context

j. ensuring that use of social media and e-health is consistent with the practitioner’s ethical and legal obligations to protect privacy

3.5 Informed consent

b. providing an explanation of the treatment/care recommended, its likely duration, expected benefits and cost, any alternative(s) to the proposed care, their relative risks/benefits, as well as the likely consequences of no care

c. obtaining informed consent or other valid authority before undertaking any examination or investigation, providing treatment/care (this may not be possible in an emergency) or involving patients in teaching or research, including providing information on material risks

3.6 Informed financial consent

a. ensuring that any financial agreement is based on the clinical needs of the patient

3.7 Children and young people

b. placing the interests and wellbeing of the child or young person first

d. ensuring informed consent to providing care for children involves the patient’s parent and/or guardian being provided with clinically relevant information for the chiropractic management of the child; unless a chiropractor judges that a child is of sufficient age and mental and emotional capacity to give their own consent to a service and relevant state and territory laws are complied with

e. ensuring that risks of care and alternatives to care are sufficiently explained as these are essential elements of informed consent

4.1 Use of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities in chiropractic practice

a. a full and thorough assessment of patients using tools, tests and procedures that are appropriate for the gathering of information necessary to form a reasonable diagnosis or clinical impression

c. only using diagnostic tools, tests and procedures in accordance with established protocols for their appropriate use

d. evaluating and reporting the data obtained in a contextual way to ensure that a reasonable and relevant diagnosis/clinical impression is formed, and that appropriate and necessary care is provided

e. when using tools, tests and procedures in formulating a diagnosis/clinical impression, management plan and/or for prognostic purposes, the tools used should be for conditions where there are demonstrated acceptable levels of reliability and validity, and

f. not misrepresenting the clinical value or significance of the findings of any tool, test or procedure.

5.1 Respect for colleagues and other practitioners

b. acknowledging and respecting the contribution of all practitioners involved in patient care

6.4 Public health matters

a. understanding the principles of public health, including health education, health promotion, disease prevention, and control and screening

b. participating in efforts to promote the health of the community and being aware of obligations in disease prevention, including screening and reporting notifiable diseases where relevant

6.5 Provision of care in a healthcare facility

Good practice involves:

a. seeking permission to access and provide care

b. adhering to and following the policies and procedures of the facility

c. communicating effectively with other practitioners involved in the management of the patient

d. keeping the the facility informed of any care

e. ensuring professional indemnity insurance (PII) coverage to cover care in that facility, and

f. keeping adequate records.

9.6 Advertising

a. complying with the National Board’s Advertising guidelines and relevant state and territory legislation and Commonwealth law.

b. making sure that any information published about services is factual and verifiable

10.2 Chiropractors’ health

c. understanding the principles of immunisation against communicable diseases

_____________________________________

Guidelines for advertising regulated health services

6.2 Prohibited advertising under the National Law

Section 133 of the National Law prohibits advertising that:

  • is false, misleading or deceptive or is likely to be so
  • offers a gift, discount or other inducement to attract a user of the health service without stating the terms and conditions of the offer
  • uses testimonials or purported testimonials
  • creates an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment, and/or
  • encourages the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of health services.

6.2.1 Misleading or deceptive advertising

Section 133 of the National Law states:

1. A person must not advertise a regulated health service, or a business that provides a regulated health service, in a way that –

a. Is false, misleading or deceptive or is likely to be misleading or deceptive

Eg:

– mislead, either directly, or by implication, use of emphasis, comparison, contrast or omission

– only provide partial information which could be misleading

– imply that the regulated health services can be a substitute for public health vaccination or immunisation

– advertise the health benefits of a regulated health service when there is no proof that such benefits can be attained, and/or

– compare different regulated health professions or practitioners, in the same profession or across professions, in a way that may mislead or deceive.

6.2.2 Gifts and discounts

Section 133 of the National Law states:

1. A person must not advertise a regulated health service, or a business that provides a regulated health service, in a way that –

b. Offers a gift, discount or other inducement to attract a person to use the service or the business, unless the advertisement also states the terms and conditions of the offer

Advertising may contravene the National Law when it:

– contains price information that is inexact

– contains price information that does not specify any terms and conditions or variables to an advertised price, or that could be considered misleading or deceptive

– states an instalment amount without stating the total cost (which is a condition of the offer), and/or

– does not state the terms and conditions of offers of gifts, discounts or other inducements.

6.2.3 Testimonials

Section 133 of the National Law states:

1. A person must not advertise a regulated health service, or a business that provides a regulated health service, in a way that –

c. Uses testimonials or purported testimonials about the service or business

6.2.4 Unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment

Section 133 of the National Law states:

1. A person must not advertise a regulated health service, or a business that provides a regulated health service, in a way that –

d. Creates an unreasonable expectation of beneficial treatment

6.2.5 Encouraging indiscriminate or unnecessary use of health services

Section 133 of the National Law states:

1. A person must not advertise a regulated health service, or a business that provides a regulated health service, in a way that –

e. Directly or indirectly encourages the indiscriminate or unnecessary use of regulated health services

_____________________________________

Social media policy

When using social media, health practitioners should remember that the National Law, their National Board’s code of ethics and professional conduct (the Code of conduct) and the Guidelines for advertising regulated health services (the Advertising guidelines) apply.

Registered health practitioners should only post information that is not in breach of these obligations by:

  • complying with professional obligations
  • complying with confidentiality and privacy obligations (such as by not discussing patients or posting pictures of procedures, case studies, patients, or sensitive material which may enable patients to be identified without having obtained consent in appropriate situations)
  • presenting information in an unbiased, evidence-based context, and
  • not making unsubstantiated claims.

Additional information may be available from professional bodies and/or employers, which aims to support health practitioners’ use of social media. However, the legal, ethical, and professional obligations that registered health practitioners must adhere to are set out in the National Boards’ respective Code of conduct and the Advertising guidelines.

___________________________________________

 

About reasonable hank

I'm reasonable, mostly.
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7 Responses to Anti-vaccine chiropractors 66 – adjusting a 3 day old baby in hospital

  1. It’s bad enough that these people lie abut vaccinations. But now they are spreading lies about the origins of Raggedy Ann dolls. The patent for the doll was granted the same month that his child died (of an infected vaccination, not as a consequence of the vaccination itself). Anyone who knows anything about the granting of patents, knows that it takes a very long time & for it to be granted the same month as her death, the process has commenced long beforehand. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raggedy_Ann

  2. Stephen says:

    An anti flouridation crank (post on 29 Oct 2015) too.

  3. Aaron says:

    Hey mate, this sort of stuff makes the entire profession of chiropractic look like a bunch of quacks, and the reasonable majority of us wish they’d go away and call themselves something else quick smart. There is a large body of evidence for chiropractic care for non-systemic complaints and some low quality studies indicating benefits for SOME systemic complaints in SOME cases. Evidence based practice should be adhered to where prudent (obviously it’s hard to get people to volunteer on RCTs for parachutes and CPR, but in the broader sense, evidence based practice is the way to go). I hope the rest of us get reasonable consideration for the fact that many of us are pro-vaccination (as I am myself), even though it is the place of the internal medical field to make these determinations and chiropractors should only provide the advice that vaccinations are, by and large, beneficial, and patients should consult their primary MD regarding the care of their child.

    Insofar as adjustments of infants are concerned, the treatment of children within hospitals (as you’ve mentioned) is, and should be, against policy. On the other hand gentle mobilisation of the cranial sutures (what paediatric chiropractors refer to as ‘cranials’) can be useful in the reduction and rectification of plagiocephaly, but this other stuff about oxygen flow etc. I’ve never heard before, and would hesitate to believe without evidence. General adjustment of the spine of a child is performed (not by me, I treat athletes and other adults) w a different approach than what people envision when they think of an adjustment in an adult. I wouldn’t adjust a rugby player and my grandmother in the same way, similar logic applies to these guys. The treatments have proven to be safe (obviously there have been incidents of some adverse effects, but what treatment in any health care field doesn’t have any risk?…maybe reiki…they don’t touch you at all so…y’know) and in cases of conditions like torticollis etc. commonly identified by a child refusing to look in one direction, or only feeding on one side, as it hurts their neck to turn the other way, the treatments are effective.

    Anyway, yes, there are a number of chiropractors who seem to view the adjustment w some kind of religious fervour in which the invented subluxation is the deity, but please don’t let them be the measuring stick which maligns a whole profession. Do, however, please continue to unveil these charlatans, it would help the profession (and evidence based practice in general) greatly if they were to stop this.

    Regards,

    A reasonable chiropractor.

    • Sorry, this was in the spam folder.

      Thanks for voicing your protests about the behaviour of non-evidence based chiropractors and their lack of professionalism.

      I can’t agree with any need for any chiropractor to treat a baby, ever. The only need would be torticollis, and that can be done by other health professionals.

      Also, any concerns about a baby’s head-shape should be addressed by paediatricians.

      It is time for the chiropractic profession to stand up and protest against cradle-to-grave marketing, unneeded treatment, and over-treatment by charlatans; charlatans who give you all a bad name. And it is time the Chiropractic Board of Australia took their role seriously.

  4. Ken McLeod says:

    The Chiropractic Board has been captured by the chiropractic industry and can not work in the interests of public safety. They should be sacked. I give you as one argument for sacking their failure to implement a Mandatory Adverse Event Reporting System.

    Why has the Chiropractic Board not established a Mandatory Reporting System of Adverse Events, as has every other regulatory authority in Australia? How on Earth can the Board and chiropractors make any claim for safety and efficacy without one? In my industry, aviation, accidents and serious incidents are required to be immediately notified to the ATSB in accordance with section 18 of the Transport Safety Investigation Act 2003. The penalty for failure to report by telephone is ‘Imprisonment for 12 months.’ The penalty for a failure to submit a written notification within 72 hours of an accident, serious incident or incident is 30 penalty units, i.e. $5400.”

    There are many other examples of their incompetence, and exposed by Hank.

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