BLAINE, Minn. – (Oct. 26, 2017) – Chronic back pain is the leading precursor to opioid prescription drugs in the United States and more than half of overdose deaths are attributed to opioids. During National Spine Health Month, the Salvation Army and HealthSource Chiropractic have teamed up to fight this epidemic.
“Pain is your body letting you know there’s something wrong,” said Bob Vaughn of HealthSource in Blaine.
For many Americans that pain has been treated with prescription drugs. More than 245 million are prescribed a year. That treatment for pain has led many to become addicted.
“So the opioid epidemic is going crazy, 80 percent of heroin users are citing that prescription drugs are their gateway to it,” Vaughn said.
HealthSource Chiropractic wants to be a part of offering a different kind of treatment.
“So we’re partnering with the salvation army, they deal a lot with the addiction and treatment afterward and we’re working on the front end of that,” Vaughn said. “A 20 dollar donation covers the initial counsel so we can figure out why people are in pain, how to get them off the medications and feeling better so they don’t have to go down that route, just letting people know there’s another option other than popping more pills.”
Just as there’s a 20 dollar offer for individuals getting treatment, there’s also an offer for businesses as well.
“Something we’re doing to help out with the businesses is we’re actually going into different businesses and providing stress break chair massages for their staff and employees and we do that for a donation back to the salvation army, so we just gather more money and help them out,” Vaughn explained.
The Salvation Army will use the donations to help those its rehabilitation centers, HealthSource wants to help those dealing with pain beforehand to know that they have options.
“We see a lot of people that are in pain, that’s one of the main reasons people think about chiropractic with that, and they either want to avoid the pills or they’ve been taking them and they want to get off of them, because you know you take them you feel funny, drugged, kind of fogged, and you know, there’s a lot of negative side-effects with those that people don’t want to go down that route and they see it affecting their family so they’re looking for a better option and that’s what we provide,” Vaughn said.
For Vaughn, the goal is to end the pain, one back at a time.
“Our overall goal is to help stop the opioid epidemic and we’re helping that by stopping pain on the front end and then being able to donate to the salvation army’s efforts to deal with the people who have been addicted to them and are trying to get themselves taken care of.”
Vaughn said the HealthSource Franchise hopes to raise about 60 to 300 thousand dollars across the country. The campaign will go on through November.
