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Newsletter of the European Chiropractors’ Union
ECU news
Chiropractors from Cyprus and Italy sDhare 2017 Humanitarian Award
RS DINOS Ramon of needed was both psychological and Cyprus and Sven Boehne biomechanical in nature.
of Italy were jointly awarded the 2017 ECU Humanitarian Award for, respectively, work with refugees following the Turkish invasion of Northern Cyprus and work with first responders (notably fire fighters) in the Italian earthquakes of 2016.
Cyprus has been a divided country following the Turkish invasion of 1974 prompted by
a coup d’état to overthrow the president, Archbishop Makarios III, by the junta ruling Greece
and the Cypriot National Guard. Around 200,000 Greek-Cypriots were displaced from the North and 60,000 Turkish-Cypriots left the South for the North. Dr Ramon, who was the first chiropractor in Cyprus, lost a 32-room clinic and health centre in Bogazi, Famagusta, to the Turkish invasion. He then spent one day per week per refugee
Dinos Ramon
camp, for nine months, in camps for the displaced at Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca before relocating to
the divided town of Nicosia and resurrecting a thriving chiropractic clinic. It was during his time as a refugee that he gave chiropractic care to his fellow displaced persons. Dr Ramon will give the prize money to a cancer charity in Cyprus.
In the summer of 2016, central Italy was once again struck by
Sven Boehne
earthquakes: five near Macerata, four near Perugia, registering between 4.5 and 6.6 on the Richter scale. It was yet another in a never-ending series of earthquakes, causing units of the Civil Protection service, the firemen and the Red Cross, to work long, excruciating hours extracting victims from
the rubble, securing houses and providing the population with the basic amenities. Typically, the care
Sven Boehne, who lives and works near the devastated areas, established a field facility and co-ordinated other volunteers to provide free, on-site chiropractic services to the men and women first responders who were working up to 14 hours per day. As soon as the firemen were notified of their presence, lines formed outside the chiropractors’ tent to be treated for problems caused by the long hours of fatigue and strenuous labour in appallingly stressful conditions. Dr. Boehne’s team included chiropractors Roberto Vecchioni, Pelle Daugaard, Roberto Purifico, David Williams, Piero Giacobbi, Leonard Hardy, Giovanbattista Costantini and Ciro Errico. They have decided to donate the prize money to a fire service charity.
See page 28 for Sven Boehne’s account of the work in Italy.
ECU General Council meeting
A report of the meeting on 24 May 2017
AT THE spring meeting of the General Council it was decided to investigate further the opportunity presented by the European Union Common Training Framework (CTF) for helping national associations achieve a higher profile with their health authorities. EU Directive 2013/55 (on the recognition of professional qualifications) introduces the possibility of setting up “common training frameworks” aimed at offering a new avenue for the automatic recognition of professional qualifications in member states. The framework must
be based on a common set of knowledge, skills and competences necessary to pursue the profession and, subject to the profession concerned or the education and training leading to the profession being regulated in at least one third of the member states, qualifications obtained under such common training frameworks will automatically be recognised in the other participating Member States.
Reem Bakker, Chairman of the EU Affairs Committee, said that though the primary intention with a CTF was to improve the internal market (which does not cover health care), because the CTF is
given to a profession by the EU it would strengthen the claims of national associations to speak to national health authorities on behalf of the profession
In a second discussion, the Council adopted plans to focus
the European Academy of Chiropractic on the creation of wider opportunities for education as a chiropractor, bearing in mind the evolving nature of graduate and subsequent training, working closely with the national associations. Additionally, the Council called for the establishment of a vibrant and self-financing programme of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) dedicated to raising interest and competence in their areas of specialisation and involving a wide cross-section of chiropractors and other relevant health care professionals. Current SIGs cover clinical issues, diagnostic imaging, education, neurology, orthopaedics, paediatrics, research and sports. It is hoped to start a further group concerned with chiropractic treatment for the elderly. Meanwhile, the search is on for new appointments as Dean, and directors of undergraduate education and continuing education.
The Council heard that the 2017 applications for research funding through the European Centre for Chiropratic Research Excellence (ECCRE) had produced a strong crop of projects, including the development of an ICF-assisted schedule for manual medicine and a study of the effectiveness of chiropractic treatment for infantile colic.
See page 14 for a report on the initial Chiropractic and Academic Research Leadership (CARL) awards.
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