The New Ordre Communicating the Quebec vision for chiropractic A s the president of the Ordre des Chiropracticiens du Quebec, Dr. Andre-Marie Gonthier is suitably positioned to comment upon the situation in which the chiropractic profession fi nds itself in that province, as well as how other Quebec health professions perceive DCs. In fact, he, and his board, had a lot to do with both over the past year. Dr. Gonthier is celebrating one year in offi ce as president of the Ordre. In an in- terview with Canadian Chiropractor, he, very kindly, discussed the activities he has initiated and participated in, over the past 12 months, but the discussion reached far beyond Quebec and could not be limited to the chiropractic profession. You see, the vision of Gonthier and the Ordre does not restrict itself to chiropractic, or Quebec. Rather it extends to increasing the role of chiropractic within the health- care system in the province, by changing how it is perceived by other health professions and the public, and how this inclusion – not integration – can be carried out by chiropractors in other provinces as well. But this vision, as Quebec chiropractors now recognize it, was not in place when Dr. Gonthier took offi ce. “I knew what challenges to expect,” says Gonthier, in his pensive manner, “and I took our Dr. Andre-Marie Gonthier, president of the Ordre des chiropracticiens du Quebec. motto, ‘a new dynamic’ very seriously. My decision to run for offi ce was rational – and my wife Suzanne was behind me all the way – but then, when I made that decision, I plunged into it. One year later, the results are very strong.” FIRST STEPS – COMMUNICATION WITHIN THE ORDRE “The new board was divided on many issues,” continues Gonthier, “and by working one-on- one with each of the board members, asking for opinions, priorities and ideas that we should work on, we were able to establish a direction. So, the fi rst thing we did was to defi ne the mis- sion, values and vision of the Ordre – this was not there, previously.” In September 2007, the chiropractors of Quebec held their annual convention, where the Ordre presented the fruits of their intensive, initial labours. “The reaction we saw was very positive,” recalls Gonthier, “people were excited by what they heard and wanted to become active in their profession.” STEP, THE SECOND – QUEBEC DCs IN SUMMIT The Ordre followed up its success at the September convention by calling a retreat in the month of October. The purpose of the retreat was to bring together chiropractors, of all practice types and philosophies, from all areas of Quebec. Dr. Gonthier was able to round up 75 members of the profession for this meeting. “We, the board, had created nine questions, representing issues in the profession, for the delegates to answer. We randomly divided the 75 into fi ve groups and put each group in its own room. We asked the groups to address the nine questions, one question at a time, with the goal of reaching a consensus, through respectful discussion, on each. When the groups were done, we held roundtable discussions to determine the points of convergence on each 32 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | JUNE 2008 www.canadianchiropractor.ca feature
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