News Release

from December 27, 2011 about Sheppard Corporate Wellness Services

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/search/article/1466661

DR. SHEPPARD ATTENDS EMPLOYEE HEALTHCARE CONGRESS IN CHICAGO

Saint John, NB – Dr. Jeffrey Sheppard, B.Sc., D.C., owner of Sheppard Chiropractic and Laser Healing Centres in Saint John and Rothesay attended the 3rd Annual Employee Healthcare Congress in Chicago on October 26 to 28. At the conference, he attended the Corporate Wellness Certification Course as well as advanced workshops on designing and implementing effective corporate wellness programs in various types of companies.
With unsustainable rising costs of healthcare and health insurance in North America, the Conference was attended by more than 2,000 delegates from companies, insurers, and consultants specializing in corporate wellness programs. The seminars focused on four primary areas of the Wellness Industry: Healthcare Reform in America, Sustainable Corporate Wellness Programs; Advantages of Self-Funding Healthcare; and Utilizing Voluntary Benefits.
A highlight of the Conference, according to Dr. Sheppard, was the address by John Casey, Director of International Benefits for Google, Inc., a recognized leader in developing an innovative corporate wellness culture and infrastructure at its headquarters in Mountainview, California and in its worldwide operations.
Some of the features of Google’s wellness culture include:

Bicycles or scooters for efficient travel between meetings; dogs; lava lamps; massage chairs; and use of large inflatable exercise balls;
“Googlers’ sharing cubes, yurts and huddle rooms – and very few solo offices.
Laptops everywhere – standard issue for mobile coding, email on the go and note-taking.
Foosball, pool tables, volleyball courts, assorted video games, pianos, ping pong tables, and gyms that offer yoga and dance classes.
Grassroots employee groups for all interests, like meditation, film, wine tasting and salsa dancing.
Free healthy lunches and dinners for all staff at a variety of cafés run by award-winning chefs.
Break rooms packed with a variety of healthy snacks and drinks to keep Googlers going.

States Sheppard, who is in the process of developing a Corporate Wellness Service Division to provide services and programs to local organizations, “The key to a successful Corporate Wellness Program is creating a strong culture of health within the company or organization. In fact, in entities with supportive management and an consistent emphasis on health, employees participate at three times the levels of organizations where there is less emphasis. Moreover, research by the American Institute for Preventive Medicine demonstrates that in companies with a supportive wellness culture, employees have much higher levels of permanent behaviour change to healthy habits and achieve higher scores on all wellness indicators.”
At the Conference, Dr. Sheppard also attended panels that explored new tools and strategies designed to engage employees in wellness programs, along with means of detecting and addressing unanticipated barriers to employee participation and adopting healthier habits.

Since 1997 Dr. Sheppard, a graduate of New York Chiropractic College, has treated patients with natural therapies not involving drugs or surgery, such as Chiropractic, Low-intensity Laser, Therapeutic Massage, and Reflexology. For more information on the Conference or Sheppard’s Corporate Wellness Services, contact the Doctor at drjrsheppard@nb.aibn.com.

Letter to the editor

Telegraph-Journal, October 19, 2011 19 October 2011

Dear Editor:

While I and scores of alternative healthcare providers in the Province applaud the honorable Health Minister Madeleine Dube’ on her upcoming “Health Summit,” we alternative professionals who pick up the slack when patients tire of the one-two drugs-and-surgery punch of mainstream medicine can’t help but feel a little excluded.
Many of us wonder if the “extensive provincial consultation process on primary health care reform in New Brunswick including the largest primary health care survey in the province's history” looked into the efficacy of chiropractic, low-intensity laser therapy, acupuncture, reflexology, registered massage therapy, naturopathy, nutritional counseling, and nutriceutical therapy. Out in the West and to the South, these alternatives are more actively embraced by mainstream medicine and insurers because they get results without invasive procedures that leave patients with negative side effects and extensive down time.
I personally have reached out to family practitioners to build bridges to help them understand when a chiropractic or laser treatment would be the best solution for their patients with certain conditions. I cannot say my effort was warmly welcomed or even acknowledged by everyone! Yet there are some forward-thinking physicians I am working with.
When are our Province and the family practitioners who practice here going to recognize and affirm the cost-savings-- in both expenditures and health benefits-- of alternative therapies? I care for approximately 3,000 patients, many of whom would gladly testify to the relief and healing they’ve received from serious conditions like back injuries, plantar fascitis , arthritis and carpel tunnel from chiropractic and laser treatment without having to endure long-term medication and/or a lengthy recovery from invasive surgery.
At a time when even health insurers are starting to cover said alternative therapies because they cost less and do more in many cases, I ask: What do we need to do to forge a closer relationship with mainstream medicine for the benefit of the patient? Perhaps, the first step would be for our government officials to acknowledge that we exist. Secondly, they could start including us as essential components of the health care system. And, perhaps in the next Health Summit or Health System Research, they would determine that we “alternatives” actually do provide beneficial options that could make our overall health care system more efficacious and economical.

Sincerely concerned,

JEFFREY R. SHEPPARD, B.Sc., D.C.

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