“We find that when we collaborate, our patients tend to get better faster and stay better longer,” Balodis notes. “Once we get the right recipe down, patients get to a point where they don’t need to rely on us as heavily.” Brickyard’s approach to care enables better treatment of patients with comorbid health problems while also creating synergistic benefits: “Someone with comorbidities might not respond well to treatment, but Erin’s work makes it possible for the body to better receive manual therapy,” Stonehouse says. Migraines are a common co-treat issue. A patient coming in with migraines will receive chiropractic care in the form of a postural assessment, manual therapy, and home exer-cises, as well as naturopathic measures like bloodwork, diet and supplement recommendations, or even a sleep hygiene assessment. “Co-treatment comes down to cases where there’s more than one cause of a symptom,” Stonehouse explains. “Mi-graines can have a lot of different causes that are difficult to isolate. I’ve treated migraine sufferers who saw only partial improvement with chiropractic treatment.” Balodis and Stonehouse work to keep each other up to date on the latest research in each other’s respective disci-plines, enabling each of them to communicate to patients about the other’s capabilities and scope of treatment. Their clinic also uses all-electronic charting to facilitate the con-stant flow of communication between team members. The Brickyard Health team engages in case conferences every day (with patient permission), which keeps all team mem-bers apprised of a patient’s progress and enables practition-ers to avoid plateaus. Stonehouse says that for now, Brick-yard is focusing on finding more ways to serve more clients. faster collaboration. Thrive’s next major development will involve opening a satellite clinic to expand upon the services available at their Yonge-Eglinton clinic. This satellite clinic is still early-stages, but this expansion proves the viability of collaborative DC/ND relationships. Collaborative care is the future of CAM More effective treatment Erin Balodis, ND, and D’Arcy Stonehouse, DC, are the co-founders of Brickyard Health in Halifax, a 12-person interdisciplinary practice that provides chiropractic and naturopathic treatment as well as massage therapy, acupunc-ture, nutrition counselling, mental health services, and prenatal care. The pair met when Balodis attended a mobility class at a local CrossFit gym and later became colleagues when they were both hired to work at the same clinic. “At our old clinic, we quickly saw that we had the same values and the same approach to evidence-based patient care,” Stonehouse says. “And we wanted to create a space that supports that. Brickyard is two years old, but we’ve been working together for seven years.” Balodis says that their shared desire to be business owners is what prompted them to start Brickyard Health. The busi-ness would ultimately provide them with the opportunity to provide more effective treatments for patients who have comorbid conditions. cndoctor.ca Practitioners who are looking to ramp up a collaborative practice quickly can benefit from a variety of processes and technological tools that facilitate collaboration. Electronic health records systems can make sharing patient files fast and easy, while videoconferencing tools like Zoom and team instant-messaging platforms like Stitch can enable faster communication, even between professionals who aren’t in the same city. Complementary and alternative medicine practitioners are increasingly finding ways to collaborate and co-treat, and when they do, patients see better results. That’s why the Canadian Chiropractic Association released a statement in support of interprofessional collaboration in 2018, noting that interprofessional collaboration increases quality of care and patient satisfaction while reducing the cost of care de-livery. There are now clinics that offer integrated chiroprac-tic and naturopathic services in cities across Canada. The symbiotic relationship between chiropractors and naturo-paths is one that enables these two professions to gain a clearer picture of a patient’s symptoms and create more effective, longer-lasting treatments. With digital tools and a growing body of knowledge making collaboration easier, these collaborations should be encouraged. Both patients and practices benefit when chiropractors and naturopaths work together, and these collaborations (and others like them) are the future of CAM. May 2020 Chiropractic and Naturopathic Doctor 17
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