The community acupuncture days are working beautifully here in Thetford Center. Word has spread like wildfire that people can get acupuncture for $20-$45, and the phone is ringing and the emails are coming in (the current going rate in the Upper Valley is $70-$125 for a private session.) This is clearly the right business model for the new economy. Alternative health care just has to become affordable, whether or not it is covered by insurance. For acupuncture to really work, people usually need to come at least once a week, and sometimes twice, and the treatments usually need to be continued for at least a couple of months. That means the treatments have to be affordable.
I found that when I was only offering private sessions at $75 an hour, or even back when they were $45, $50 or $60 an hour (I’ve been doing acupuncture for 15 years), people often came with the hope and expectation that one or two sessions should cure them. That’s fine if you are a healthy unmedicated person who has an acute shovelling injury (that’s what we get around here in the early winter when we are out of practice). But if you are coming with allergies, infertility, digestive problems, fatigue, depression, arthritis or any other chronic condition, chances are you are going to need weekly or biweekly treatment for at least a couple of months. When I was only offering private sessions, I was often hesitant to even let people know that they needed to come for longer, knowing how hard it would be on their finances. So I would say “Come for a few sessions, and then we’ll talk.”
Community acupuncture makes it possible for people to get the treatment they need, for as long as they need it. It also means people can stay and relax for as long as they like, since I am not trying to free up the treatment room at the end of every hour, there are extra spots available, so no one has to rush out.
I have two tables set up in one room, and a couch and two big comfy chairs in the next room. I am currently scheduling a new person every 20 minutes. Many community acupucture clinics schedule a new person every 10 minutes, and can drop their rates even lower. I am not that streamlined yet, nor am I sure that I want to be. I think 15-20 minutes of personal attention gives a little time to remember we are human and have some fun together.
To schedule an appointment, call 802-785-2503 or email me through the contact page.
Didi Pershouse, CCH, LAc.
I have just returned from a workshop on Community Acupuncture put on by a group called “Working Class Acupuncture” in Portland, Oregon.
I have been toying with the idea of low-cost group treatments for some time now, and this workshop has convinced me that Community Acupuncture is the way to go. In August I will start offering group treatments at the Two Rivers Clinic in Thetford Center, Vermont for a sliding scale of $20-45 per treatment (you decide where you fit on the scale). For an appointment, call 802-785-2503, or email me through the contact page.
If we look at the Sustainable Medicine Manifesto, Community Acupuncture is a good example of sustainable medicine in many ways:
1. It is financially affordable, for both clients and practitioners, making acupuncture available to all who need it, rather than limiting it to those who can afford it.
2. It is non-toxic, to clients and to the earth, creating less waste per treatment than a single can of soda.
3. It is slow medicine—clients are allowed to relax and stay for as long as they like.
4. It builds and restores community connections by encouraging people to relax in a meditative environment with their neighbors.
5. It is pattern-based and proactive—treating the underlying cause of the illness based on whole body diagnosis.
6. The only thing sterile about Community Acupuncture are the needles. Community Acupuncture creates a healthy fertile environment in which people can grow and change.
This article first appeared in The American Acupuncturist, Volume XXIII, Winter 2000. I am reprinting it here because Cuba is a country we will wish we had studied closer as we enter the post-peak-oil era. Cuba has already been through the changes we are just barely starting to feel the effects of, and their solutions were far more brave and creative than most other countries who have found themselves suddenly lacking resources.
Despite huge shortages in medical supplies due to the U.S. embargo, Cuba has one of the most advanced medical systems in Latin America-and a strong commitment to providing free medical care not just to its own people, but to poverty stricken areas around the world.
In recent years, a second revolution has taken root in the fertile soil of the first: “Natural and Traditional Medicine”-from acupuncture to homeopathy to music therapy-is now offered in clinics and hospitals alongside conventional therapies, and Cuban patients pay the same amount for open heart surgery as they do for an acupuncture treatment: absolutely nothing. I traveled to Cuba in November, 1999 to research this phenomenon, and returned with a great love for this small country. (more…)