Illness Care vs. Wellness Care

As a Chiropractic Wellness Office, we believe chiropractic is a lifestyle that involves all aspects of wellness; including exercise, nutrition, personal development and relief from stress. Wellness care taps into our body’s innate ability to heal itself.  When given the right environment, our bodies can not just heal, but also prevent some illness and chronic disease from happening in the future.

So what exactly is wellness care and how does it differ from the healthcare that is most commonly practiced in this country? Besides being the most expensive of systems, the focus of U.S. healthcare is on REACTING to illness and disease while wellness care focuses on PREVENTION. This chart illustrates some of the key differences between illness care and wellness care:

ILLNESS 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 (trauma, heart attack, stroke)
• Illness care is typically rendered by a specialist (cardiologist, urologist, etc.)
• Emphasis is placed on the precise diagnosis of specific conditions. Once the diagnosis is established, the 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.
• The philosophy of illness care is mechanistic: fix the disease or malfunctioning body part.

WELLNESS CARE

• 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 treatment recommendations.
• The individual is responsible for their health and wellness, and must become and active participant in lifestyle changes.
• The philosophy of wellness care is vitalistic: Help the individual to grow into a greater measure of health.