Displaying items by tag: Everspring Health

Principles embraced by the Members of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine

1. Optimal Health is the primary goal of holistic medical practice. It is the conscious pursuit of the highest level of functioning and balance of the physical, environmental, mental, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of human experience, resulting in a dynamic state of being fully alive. This creates a condition of well-being regardless of the presence or absence of disease.
    
2. The Healing Power of Love. Holistic healthcare practitioners strive to meet the patient with grace, kindness, acceptance, and spirit without condition, as love is life's most powerful healer.
    
3. Whole Person. Holistic healthcare practitioners view people as the unity of body, mind, spirit and the systems in which they live.
    
4. Prevention and Treatment. Holistic healthcare practitioners promote health, prevent illness and help raise awareness of dis-ease in our lives rather than merely managing symptoms. A holistic approach relieves symptoms, modifies contributing factors, and enhances the patient’s life system to optimize future well-being.
    
5. Innate Healing Power. All people have innate powers of healing in their bodies, minds and spirits. Holistic health care practitioners evoke and help patients utilize these powers to affect the healing process.
    
6. Integration of Healing Systems. Holistic healthcare practitioners embrace a lifetime of learning about all safe and effective options in diagnosis and treatment. These options come from a variety of traditions, and are selected in order to best meet the unique needs of the patient. The realm of choices may include lifestyle modification and complementary approaches as well as conventional drugs and surgery.
    
7. Relationship-centered Care. The ideal practitioner-patient relationship is a partnership which encourages patient autonomy, and values the needs and insights of both parties. The quality of this relationship is an essential contributor to the healing process.
    
8. Individuality. Holistic healthcare practitioners focus patient care on the unique needs and nature of the person who has an illness rather than the illness that has the person. 
    
9. Teaching by Example. Holistic healthcare practitioners continually work toward the personal incorporation of the principles of holistic health, which then profoundly influence the quality of the healing relationship.
     
10. Learning Opportunities. All life experiences including birth, joy, suffering and the dying process are profound learning opportunities for both patients and healthcare practitioners.

The cooperative organizational structure was chosen as the optimal vehicle for maintaining the focus of our organization. The International Cooperative Alliance currently serves as the international standard bearer for cooperatives. A cooperative is a member-owned, member-governed business that operates for the benefit of its members according to common principles agreed upon by the International cooperative community as well as its articles and bylaws. In a cooperative organization members pool resources to bring about economic results that are generally unobtainable by one person alone. Cooperatives are formed to help better market common products (Land-O-Lakes, Sunkist, etc) or to help leverage resources to purchase products (REI, Wedge etc.) or obtain services desired by a common group of individuals (Everspring Health). Everspring Health is the result of the intention to pursue the aforementioned objectives in the area of lifestyle, health and healing services.

Cooperatives are mission driven and are designed to offer greatest benefit to the individuals who use the services offered by the organization. This concept presents a unique member focus that we believe to be ideal in the pursuit of our mission for improving quality of life. Due to the nature of a cooperative we have the ability to develop a resource that enables us to invest in the refinement, expansion and long-term stability of our organization so that we can maintain our mission while still keeping the costs to our members in mind.

We believe that it is a sound investment to pay our employees and practitioners what they are worth based on experience and the investment they make towards the cultivation of our mission. We believe it is important to provide access to facilities and resources that do not hamstring and more importantly advance the service mission of the organization. What we don’t believe to be intuitive is seeking a means to make money for the sake of making money at the expense of peaceful and productive lifestyles. A cooperative structure provides us the means to distribute surplus revenue via patronage dividends or rebates to those member clients who choose to do their part in fulfilling the mission of our organization. We can function as an organization where everyone involved is validated for his or her time, effort and financial commitment, which seems to us to be naturally intuitive for leading healthy lives.

In a private or publicly owned company the owners may have no interest in the organization besides to earn a profit, which can distinctly change the perspective and intent of an organization. Everspring Health has been formed to offer health care in a way that is effective first and foremost but also affordable to those who utilize our services. As members of a cooperative we are uniquely positioned to ask of ourselves and of our fellow members to embrace a level of personal responsibility in our own health and wellness. We intend to integrate these standards into our program in way that is intended to inspire a new perspective in personal health and well-being. When everyone has a vested interest and sense of personal responsibility we believe that the investment and facilitation of improved health and well-being becomes a partnered effort.

"To treat, one needs trust

To trust, one needs to be safe

To be safe, one needs to be heard"

- Author Unknown -

The vision we hold for Everspring Health is one where healthcare returns to neighborhood clinics where people feel heard, where they feel validated for who they are and what they want to experience. We seek to create a space where service is provided by practitioners who know clients personally and advocate for individuals in the pursuit of improved health and longevity. At Everspring Health we believe the application of client centered care is the single focus of first-line lifestyle, health and healing services. Our vision of a more appropriate model involves an integrative healthcare strategy where the first line of healthcare is focused on the fundamentals of good health and effective healthcare. Chronic disease care is the number one medical need worldwide, the system we have today developed during a time of acute care need and is not sufficient to meet the specific needs of our time.

To effectively meet the modern need for care and pursue personalized quality of life an integrative healthcare model is the most accessible means of delivering high quality care. Integrative healthcare is the hub where all therapies, prescriptions, procedures and lifestyle components meet to create optimal outcomes. The most effective model for delivering integrative healthcare is a high performance care model. High Performance Healthcare is a care model seeking to personalize daily healthcare to such precision that you experience your best life, on your terms, with our support. High Performance Healthcare requires that we must understand your needs, your goals, your aspirations so that we can craft a personalized approach to your best experience. To accomplish this task our model is rooted in Foundational Care, our vision of what primary care should be - scientifically sound, accessible medical care balanced with medical therapies like acupuncture, chiropractic, physical therapy, nutrition and sound strategies for lifestyle development. The path through which we seek to help you perform at your best begins with foundational care, empowers you with developing a self-care discipline and enables you to perform at your best as you see fit.

Therapies and lifestyle development are critical to long-term success and beneficial to all health programs because they are dynamic to the medical needs of the individual yet grounded in the fundamental principles of health cultivation. Therapeutic strategies that consider the spirit, mind and body in the practical pursuit of optimal health are the cornerstone of the Everspring Health service model.

Our model has been recognized as an emerging leader in integrative healthcare, demonstrating that a therapy centric model not only reduces much of the wasted spending but also reduces actual cost of service while, most importantly, improving personalized care at the same time. By utilizing a therapy first model healthcare can realistically become affordable, accessible, personalized care.

In general the modern healthcare model is a procedure model where the first line of service prescribes procedures or if a diagnosis is inconclusive requires procedures to further the diagnosis. The procedure first model is ideal for medical application where emergency, urgent or acute care is determined to be necessary. However, with regards to chronic disease in general not to mention preventive, rehabilitative and quality of life care specifically, the current model has generally proven to be costly, variably effective and marginal at best with regards to overall progression towards quality of life.

An integrative healthcare model on the other hand allows for a more appropriate non-emergency first line resource by allowing for personalized treatment protocols for subclinical as well as chronic conditions. A integrative model enables healthcare to remain affordable for clients and reduces much of the inflation we have seen in the system. Much of our confidence in this model stems from the four interrelated therapy based practice components that contribute to effective integrative healthcare.

• A true integrative healthcare model requires practitioners to engage with clients, to develop an effective client-practitioner relationship for improving quality of life - merging healthcare and wellness. Integrative healthcare improves the client-practitioner relationship via a better understanding the daily lives of individuals allowing for more complete diagnoses and better compliance.
• The second component of effective integrative healthcare involves the training of qualified therapists which includes more experience with hands on diagnostic skills and can lead to a more timely diagnosis. At the same time if procedures are deemed to be necessary to better understand the diagnosis we can still pursue those as needed.
• The third component is that integrative healthcare leverages therapies as a form of treatment as well as a means of furthering the diagnosis. Even if more program development is needed an integrative practitioner can more often than not make sure treatment is available before a client leaves the office while still gaining a better understanding of the diagnosis.
• The fourth and most significant component is that integrative healthcare must be personalized. Even if generalized protocols are used they are used after personal and genuine interaction between the client and the practitioner. The one-on-one relationship allows for greater accessibility for the client because personal concerns are recognized, strengths are embraced and limitations are accommodated.

By increasing time, improving diagnostics and most often offering treatment all in the same visit it is not hard to see the benefits of an integrative healthcare model.

Furthering our vision for a more appropriate model is our system and service integration including our team practice concept supported by an improved client-practitioner partnership via our cooperative business model. These design concepts enable us to utilize an integrative model to validate everyone involved including our practitioners. This last point is something that we believe to be diluted in the current healthcare environment, it is our belief that empowered practitioners, practitioners who are allowed to perform at their best, inherently provide better service and benefit most with regards to their own health and wellbeing.

The Everspring Model was developed to be aggressively dynamic and flexible so that we may be able to maintain our commitment for improving healthcare accessibility on a daily basis. We believe that client-centered integrative healthcare is one of our primary competitive advantages because our model enables us to appropriately serve the needs of each one of our clients.

Our commitment is to quality of service. As our values state: Our focus is on service; service to our members, to our community, to the environment, and to ourselves. Our commitment to better care is rooted in principle, strengthened by values and dedicated to cultivating a healthy community.

Everspring Health Community Principles

Our values reflect our focus on quality of care; on the relationship between the practitioner and the client. It is our intention to provide access to high quality healthcare products and services, while maintaining our cooperative integrity through the internalization of six interdependent values.

Our mission is quality of life. To this end we are dedicated to creating an environment where lifestyle, health and healing services can be provided in an intuitive and compassionate manner that benefits our members, guests and the communities we serve.

We view our primary responsibility as being able to combine innovation, sound practices, and ethics to create a new healthcare concept that is prosperous and beneficial to all involved. To effectively pursue this mission we believe that three interrelated and interdependent concepts must be maintained.

Service Mission

To provide safe and effective integrative healthcare services that are grounded in sound diagnostic procedures and effective treatment principles.

Social Mission

To operate in a way that actively recognizes our intent to facilitate healthy lifestyles as an integrated holistic experience in cooperative partnership with our clients. It is our commitment to provide equal opportunity to all involved, to create the most appropriate health and healing environment needed to facilitate peace and productivity in the lives of those who seek our services.

Economic Mission

To function as both an effective and efficient organization that will result in appropriate organizational growth, long-term stability and resource affordability for members, guests and the communities we serve.

"We never change things by fighting the existing reality.

To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

R. Buckminster Fuller

Everspring Health is a Minnesota based lifestyle, health and healing cooperative founded by healthcare practitioners who are determined to change the existing reality in healthcare. Focusing on the area of preventive, rehabilitative and quality of life services Everspring Health seeks to change the way we look at health and then change the way we approach healthcare.

Changing the landscape of healthcare requires that we begin by promoting wellness and enhancing quality of life as the core objective of healthcare and healthy living. Utilizing a cooperative business model it is our intent to develop a community resource where everyone involved seeks to do their part in the pursuit of greater health and a better life. Everspring Health is a simple, fundamental concept where healthcare becomes a partnered, integrated and personalized effort between practitioners and clients. Where practitioners become facilitators of lifestyle, health and healing programs and clients embrace the responsibility for their choices and intentions in the experiences they wish to create.

Our vision for Everspring Health is to renew the concept of everyday healthcare as one of personal health facilitation where the first line of healthcare is a proactive effort towards quality of life. It is important that healthcare resources serve as a first line of defense. However, the current standard of care focuses too much on a defensive posture attempting to "catch" disease as a means of preventing the worst outcomes.

The mission for primary healthcare resources must be the space where data informs customized strategies to support the need of the individual, to make sure everyone can be included in a better experience of their day and their world. When we define disease and the subsequent care in a way that forces an individual to meet the data, we build in inherent bias and limitations for our ability to support the individual. This is why you hear us talk about the fundamentals more than anything else.

The fundamentals of health are beneficial for everyone because they can meet people where they are while providing the objective structure to accomplish three objectives.

1. Help people create awareness of the quality of life they desire.
2. Help people understand how to process information to their benefit.
3. Finally, help people put awareness and information processing in play to achieve an outcome.

We feel strongly that an effort towards quality of life provides a more honest and genuine means of benchmarking progress and validating the needs of the client. Nobody wants to experience injury or disease and to spend all our time and effort on "catching" all possible outcomes of worst-case scenario is unrealistic and sets up everyone involved for some level of disappointment.

By focusing on personalized service and better quality of life even if a disease is still present as partners we can seek the best options for improving peace and productivity. We can pursue a genuine experience for the individual and still pursue the best possible outcome with regards to any condition being addressed. By seeking this path as partners this perspective empowers the client and practitioner by pursuing a productive goal and by providing a realistic means of measuring progress. This is just one example of the Everspring Health mindset – a vision continuously renewed and further cultivated on a daily basis.

As practitioners we believe we have a responsibility to ourselves, to our clients as well as to the system of which we are apart. Health and wellness is in need of a more appropriate perspective; one that is client centered, where quality of life is a top priority and where effective intuitive protocols take precedent over habitual diagnostics and generalized treatment strategies. We don’t want to be the best for the system, for our peers or for some extrinsic reality; we want to be the best for the individual – each individual, every individual - who walks in our door. The Everspring Health mission merged with our model is long over due and we are asking our clients to join with us so that together we can help cultivate a new era in health and healing that benefits all involved.

While treatment plans for allergies vary greatly, with results ranging from temporary relief to complete remission, the appropriate therapeutic program can often relieve allergy symptoms within a short period of time. The first objective is to reduce the acute allergy symptoms so that an effective strategy can be developed to address the underlying condition. As we are able to develop a holistic program we can effectively work to reduce and ideally prevent the allergic response from reoccurring in the future.

Allergies usually occur when our immune system is unable to digest or effectively process (i.e. metabolize, expel or protect against) a substance within our environment. Allergens can vary from pollen, pet dander, mold, various foods, drugs and more. The body reacts via an inflammatory process as a means of trying to remove the allergen or protect the body from it doing further harm.

Symptoms may include a stuffy nose, copious mucus, lung/sinus congestion, fatigue, headache, indigestion, irritable bowels, redness, swelling, etc. To develop a holistic program to reduce or eliminate the condition it is important that we consider the whole pattern of symptoms that the individual is experiencing. This includes considering dietary habits, energy levels, sleep patterns as well as other lifestyle practices.

At Everspring Health, we start by learning about you and your relationship with allergies – not only the specific allergen that your body reacts to and the symptoms you might be experiencing, but the severity of the reactions, when they began, if they change depending on the season or the time of day, and any other relevant information.

An in-depth knowledge of your personal experience helps us develop a treatment plan that will address your individual needs. In general, in order to relieve allergic reactions, we need to reduce your body’s exposure to the allergen, which could mean avoiding the allergen entirely, or washing the area exposed to the allergen. We seek to make sure other unknown stressors are not contributing further to your symptoms through a concurrent condition.

Effective therapy strategies will first focus on the acute symptoms in an effort to reduce them enough to address the underlying condition, then follow-up care for the chronic, remission stage begins. Oftentimes the acute stage is so influential that the chronic symptoms must be addressed in the opposite season (i.e. fall vs spring, winter vs summer) to make an effective investment in dissolving the underlying cause.

We seek an integrative therapeutic program to help reduce inflammation around the affected site and regulate the immune system to reduce overstimulation. Dietary changes are likely to be very beneficial in the effort to control the symptoms through the elimination of food and drinks that may further influence the formation of mucus. When our diet is optimized for our constitution and for our presenting condition, clients will experience less mucus, less inflammation, increased energy, better breathing and a greater sense of well-being. As always, we will examine the effect that stress, diet, and sleep have on your health, and make changes if need be in order to help your body combat the allergic reaction.

Arthritis is a general term for conditions that include painful, swollen and/or stiff joints as primary symptoms. There are more than one hundred classifications of arthritis, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, arthritis due to infection or chemical agents, temporomandibular joint syndrome (TMJ), juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and gout.

Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, is classified as a degenerative (aka wear and tear) joint disease characterized by the deterioration of cartilage within the joints. While osteoarthritis can damage any joint in your body, the disorder most commonly affects joints in your hands, neck, lower back, knees and hips. Osteoarthritis symptoms often develop slowly and worsen over time. Signs and symptoms include: pain, tenderness, stiffness, loss of flexibility or range of motion, grating or grinding sensation and bone spurs

Rheumatoid Arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that typically affects the joints in our hands and feet. Rheumatoid causes painful swelling in the lining of the joints that can eventually result in damage to the bone and joint deformity.

RA is considered an autoimmune disorder, which occurs when your immune system mistakenly attacks our own body tissues. In addition to causing joint problems, rheumatoid arthritis sometimes can also lead to inflammation in other organs of the body — such as the skin, eyes, lungs and blood vessels.

At Everspring Health, we start by learning about you and your relationship with arthritis. What is your pain like – is it sharp, dull, achey, constant, short-lived? Do you experience stiffness or swelling? Is it different in heat versus cold weather, or does it change with different seasons? We gather as much information as we can, so that we can develop a strategy to treat your unique symptoms and ideally dissolve the underlying cause.

Depending on whether you are experiencing inflammation or a lack of circulation, we can use direct therapies to calm inflamed areas and improve circulation. We fully examine lifestyle habits (stress, diet, and sleep); help you incorporate an anti-inflammatory diet, increase nutrition to help repair arthritic tissue and reduce pain, and find a movement strategy that works best for you. We educate you on how joints work, and how to maintain them over time, as well as incorporate herbal therapy, functional medicine (vitamins/minerals), and we make sure you understand the Foundational Care necessary to give you the best relief possible, while improving your overall health and well-being.

Your body doesn’t get stronger during a workout – muscle capacity improves, if rest, recovery and the workouts are optimized to your needs. The food you eat, the stress you’re under, and the sleep you get also affect the success of your training. Whether you are running 2 miles or 26.2 miles, tackling triathlons, playing softball in the heat or broomball fighting the windchill we can help you develop a strategy to make sure you can thrive in your everyday life and have the ability to play as you desire.

At Everspring Health, we help you understand the factors involved and use them to improve your performance while keeping up with the demands of everyday life. We start by examining your goals: where are you now, and where would you like to be? Which areas do you struggle with, and which areas do you excel in? By understanding exactly how your current program works, we can take steps to make it even better. Together, we balance out lifestyle factors (stress, diet, and sleep) in order to create the optimal space for the best workout, the best recovery, and the best results. We seek to prevent injuries as much as possible and treat them when they arise. We provide you with the ongoing support needed to take those next steps toward your goals.