What a week, BCA Members!
We hope you’ve enjoyed the Chiropractic Awareness Week (CAW) 2024 celebrations as much as we have, and you feel more empowered to have impactful conversations with your community and demonstrate how chiropractors can support the primary healthcare system.
We can’t wait to share the magnificent results of this year’s campaign with you, so scroll down to find out how our collective efforts have helped raise awareness of the value and credibility of chiropractic.
Things we did
Throughout the week, whilst we were raising awareness and celebrating the value and expertise that chiropractors bring to their local communities, we were also learning new things.
To mark CAW 2024, we organised an insightful programme of events for members and as part of our new lobbying campaign, which aims to shape the awareness of chiropractic and improve access to MSK services in the UK:
Roundtable at Westminster
On Tuesday 23 April, for the first time in 30 years, the BCA hosted a roundtable discussion at Westminster, chaired by BCA President, Tim Button. The purpose of the roundtable was to progress our Vision for chiropractic to be integral to UK healthcare and explore how chiropractors can help with the musculoskeletal (MSK) crisis in the UK.
This momentous event for the profession was attended by prominent stakeholders including MPs, ex ministers for sport, regulators, Royal colleges, the Secretary General and nationally renowned MSK experts. The discussion was insightful and productive, creating a strong sense of strategic direction and optimism moving forward.
Commenting on the event, BCA Board Member, Faye Deane, said: “The UK healthcare infrastructure is changing, as is healthcare regulation and chiropractic education, creating an opportunity for change leadership and transformation, which the profession so desperately needs“.
Huge thank you goes to our special guests for sharing their views, expertise and experiences with us – Richard Brown, Amanda Hensman-Crook, Laura Finucane, George Freeman MP, Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP, Anthony Woolf, Nick Jones, Richard Caborn, Dr Mark Gurden, William Roberts, Matthew Barks DC, Dawn Carnes and Alex Sobel MP who sponsored this activity.
Community engagement webinars
This year, we organised three BCA Sessions where we provided advice and guidance for members on how they can take part in our 2024 CAW activities and use our comprehensive member toolkit. We also discussed the fundamentals of community engagement and provided real-life examples of how chiropractors have connected with their local community and the impact they have made to their healthcare, leaving members with valuable learnings and takeaways that can be applied to different clinic settings.
Watch our member engagement stories by clicking here
Further to this, we hosted a special panel discussion (video below) which covered the full opportunity and breadth of integration at a higher health stakeholder and policy level, and demonstrated how the BCA is promoting and amplifying best-in-class chiropractic care and the future of the profession.
All these insightful webinars wouldn’t have been possible without our magnificent speakers and we’d like to express our gratitude for their support.
Commenting on the importance of making chiropractic integral, BCA President, Tim Button said: “The global burden of MSK conditions is only growing and chiropractors are well placed to be a part of the solution. Chiropractors are serving their local communities by offering credible and high-quality healthcare that patients truly value. This Chiropractic Awareness Week, I was very excited to read about the ways in which our members have used their clinical skills and experience to reduce the burden of MSK conditions in their local communities through the face-to-face, hands-on approach to care they provide.
With 17 million patients experiencing an MSK condition, it will take the breadth of professions across all settings to address this issue. If all members of the healthcare family adopted an integrated approach to care, celebrating the variety of regulated professions who can contribute to keeping the UK population in good health, we will stand a better chance of addressing the burden of MSK conditions.”
#CAW2024 on Social Media
Throughout the week, we were very pleased to see so many of our members using our CAW toolkit to showcase all the ways in which they make a difference to their communities. From local pop-up clinics, to free back care talks for local businesses and sponsorships of school sports clubs, we were proudly sharing all these wonderful stories on our social media channels.
Have a look at the magnificent results we’ve achieved collectively:
- We posted over 90 insightful #CAW2024 posts across Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram, reaching over 17 000 users.
- We received over 300 likes, comments and shares from all our followers.
- We shared and liked member and stakeholder posts and stories, seeing an incredible level of engagement. Please continue to tag us even after the end of CAW 2024, so that we can keep spreading the word about your brilliant work and expertise!
Social media is an important part of raising awareness of the profession among the public and your healthcare colleagues. #CAW2024 was a success and we couldn’t have done it without the help and support of all our members, stakeholders and partners. Once again, we’d like to say thank you!
