ayurveda and patient accessibility

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

i have been thinking a lot about this issue of patient accessibility

to alternative medicine. it most recently has been sparked by my

involvement with a fairly new group going under the name of Community

Acupuncture Network. Essentially the premise of this group is to make

health care(in this case acupuncture) affordable so that patients who

have little or no disposable income are able to be treated, as well as

being able to bypass the nightmare that is our health care system(in

the U.S.) as a whole for the practitioner by not dealing with

insurance companies what so ever. This isnt just about charity either,

it is also about opening up a market of the population that is much

much too under served and finding ways to actually make it financially

as a full time acupuncturist rather than part time or unemployed,

which happens far more often than many of us would like to think. In

my mind it is quite a radical idea and takes this medicine to a whole

new level in what can be done with it and who we can offer it to.

Treatments are given generally on a sliding scale of $15-40 with no

proof of income required, and treatments are given in one large room

using recliners rather than individualized rooms and individualized

time slots. This is how the difference in income of treating one

patient an hour for $50-75 is balanced out. This also allows the

patient to come in more frequently, which brings greater results and

deeper healing. It also closely reflects how clinic in china are set

up. Patients there often come in multiple times per week for treatment

until their issue is resolved, where as in the u.s. once per week or

even once per month is very common and can often offer little results

or take much longer to achieve the wanted results.

 

It works so well with acupuncture mainly because the cost of giving a

treatment is so minimal, a box of one hundred needles runs about $15

or so and takes much less physical strain on the practitioner as well

as time as do some of the more time and labor intensive treatments of

other modalities. It has its ups and downs, as does everything, but i

still feel very deeply that it will change the health care scene as we

know it for the better. There is a website:

communityacupuncturenetwork.org that i encourage anyone interested in

health care accessibility to check out.

 

my question though is how can we do something similar with ayurveda?

I'm very interested in bringning ayurverda more in to the mainstream

by offering it as a method of health care, and lessening its image as

a pampering at the spa, only available to those who can afford the

sometimes outrageous prices.i honestly wouldn't be able to even afford

my own prices. i think this is good both for us as practitioners as

well as for the general population. however, being that many pancha

karma treatments and dietary/lifestyle counseling takes a good deal of

personal time and effort as well as cost with oils and herbs, is it

somehow possible to bridge this idea with our medicine? I wonder as

well how ayurvedic treatments in india with populations that don't

have large excess or even any excess income are treated? are they only

expected to pay for their medicines? does a vaidya collect donations

from others beforehand and then use that as his payment to cover

others with no money? How has ayurveda been traditionally used over

the ceturies?

I remember the ayurveda art of being movie, and seeing the doctor who

was treating in a clinic with a never ending line of villagers waiting

to see him and he only had a donation box for after a patient visit.

not only was i completely inspired, but i wondered how he was able to

make this work.these are still rather new ideas floating around in my

head, i would be very grateful for any input on this subject.

[Guest guest]

Hello,

 

Thank you for this post as I am a grateful patient of the Community Acupuncture

Network close to where I live in Portland, OR.  It is a fantastic and easy to

use system and it delivers health care!  Yes, I had to drop out of the Ayurvedic

care I was getting here in Oregon and in California and was left without any

health care at all so I am extremely grateful for this system.  And I do

remember that scene from the Ayurveda movie and wondered how that worked. 

 

Feel free to contact me personally as I am very interested in getting health

care to those in need and see how beautifully this concept works!  And in case

you are interested, I had a friend take the mission statement for Community

Acupuncture Network up to Amma, the Hugging Saint to get it blessed and I took

the mission statement of my acupuncturist up for blessings too. 

 

It is a shame that in the US, health care is in shambles with so many without

access to care at all.  I haven¢t had health insurance for about five years now

and am a cancer survivor and have had other issues too.  I keep learning from

this group and applying what seems to fit and that is how I am managing. 

 

Thank you and blessings!

 

________

i have been thinking a lot about this issue of patient accessibility

to alternative medicine. it most recently has been sparked by my

involvement with a fairly new group going under the name of Community

Acupuncture Network.

[Guest guest]

Dear Josh,

 

Good to read through your post. There's a big need to propagate

Ayurvedic theories and treatments to people in this world.

And here are some suggestions :

 

a) I believe its false that Ayurveda should be cheap. Just because

its an alternative form of medicine, should not mean that it should come cheap.

In India, Chyawanprash sells for Rs. 150 a kg in the retail market.

However, if we produce the same stuff authentically using exactly the

same methods as defined in the scriptures, the same would cost more

than Rs. 600. So, right now - nobody is producing products the way

they should be.

 

b) One of the best ways to promote Ayurveda and the simplest way to

tell people about it - is to make them find out their Dosha. Make

them aware of their Dosha types, their body humors - Vata, Pitta and

Kapha. If they know what Dosha type they have, they would be

encouraged to read more about it and find remedies to balance Dosha.

 

c) More books in Hindi or Sanskrit about Ayurveda, need to be

translated to English or other languages, or published on the web.

 

Regards,

Puneet Aggarwal

www.herbscancure.com/blog/

www.friendfeed.com/herbalist

_________________

>I'm very interested in bringning ayurverda more in to the mainstream

>by offering it as a method of health care, and lessening its image as

>a pampering at the spa, only available to those who can afford the

>sometimes outrageous prices.