Wellness vs. Illness Care

Illness Care

Wellness Care

The goal of illness care is to return the individual to “normal,” characterized by an absence of disease or symptoms.
Illness care intervention is often “heroic” and generally works best with life-threatening conditions (major trauma, heart attack, stroke, etc.).
Illness care is typically rendered by a specialist (cardiologist, gastroenterologist, urologist, etc.).
Emphasis is placed on the precise diagnosis of specific conditions. Once the diagnosis is established, the prescribed treatment is fairly uniform for all individuals with that condition.
The doctor is responsible for the treatment regimen. The individual is usually a passive recipient of treatment.
The philosophy of illness care is mechanistic: Fix the diseased or malfunctioning body part.

Wellness care focuses on optimizing function in all aspects of the individual’s life: body, mind and spirit.
Wellness care mobilizes the inherent self-healing ability of the body for individuals wanting to prevent the need for crisis medical intervention.
Wellness-care advisors are generalists who serve to guide and motivate the individual in their self-care program.
Wellness care is tailored to meet the needs of the individual, rather than the condition. As such, two individuals with the same condition may receive very different recommendations.
The individual is responsible for their health and wellness, and must become an active participant in lifestyle changes.
The philosophy of wellness care is vitalistic: Help the individual to grow into a greater measure of health.

Our health care system needs both kinds of doctors. When you suffer major trauma, you need the best crisis care medicine can offer. This is the area in which modern medicine excels. What we need are wellness care specialists. As Doctors of Chiropractic, our niche in the health care jigsaw puzzle is to pick up where orthodox medicine has dropped the ball.