Chiropractors on a Mission Bringing care to those in need By Maria DiDanieli Dr. Lawson, volunteer chiropractor at the Yonge Street Mission, with YSM assistant director and multidisciplinary clinic creator and developer, Ruth Ewert, RN. F or the chiropractic profession, community outreach, like all efforts by its practitioners, has many branches. Some chiropractic groups raise funds for local charities and/or health-care facilities and hospitals. Some perform spinal evaluations at community events or local malls. Certain DCs will participate in amateur sports, as chiropractor to the team. Some teaching clinics provide chiropractic in areas where it might not otherwise be accessible to the local income demographic. Other doctors will conduct open-to-the-public health and wellness classes or visit local schools. All of these options serve to heighten public awareness of chiropractic and make DCs available to people who would not otherwise have considered it an option, or who could not have afforded to visit one even if they had wanted to. But there still remains a portion of society with absolutely no access to chiropractic care, no matter how great the need for it – these are the destitute who are homeless and/or in such poverty that the road to accessing treatments by a specialist is not even on their map for daily survival. This is the story of two chiropractors whose own personal vision of community outreach involves making their services available to this group of people through working with mis-sion organizations in their communities. DR. LAWSON AND THE YONGE STREET MISSION Located in Toronto’s downtown core on, as its name suggests, Yonge Street, the Yonge Street Mission (YSM) has been providing a safe haven for youth, ages 16-24 – and, when appli-cable, their children – since 1993. It is unassumingly stuffed between a colourful mixture of inner city businesses, in an area where the commerce ranges from family food establish-ments to adult entertainment lounges. The floors above many of these are used as residential spaces – one can see an array of creative window dressings from the bustle of the street below. The distractions that surround it can make the YSM almost unnoticeable – but it does not go unrecognized amongst those whose lives it has impacted. Those who come to the mission include runaways, kids who are abused or struggling with addictions, and homeless young 22 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | OCTOBER 2010 www.canadianchiropractor.ca feature
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