A brief history of Healthy Spines

The early life of Healthy Spines

The idea for Healthy Spines was developed in South Australia in 1998. With the support of health promotion and health education experts, a small group of chiropractors volunteered their time to pilot the program in 1999. The volunteers completed a thorough training program on health promotion and working in schools. They helped design a program for schools that was developmentally appropriate and based on relevant information about spinal health.

Eight schools participated in the pilot program. The South Australian Department of Education and Children's Services gave approval to evaluate the program in schools, and a project report was written and distributed in early 2000. Schools were very positive about the program - students greatly enjoyed it and demonstrated change in their spinal health knowledge and reasoning, and how they and schools could apply this knowledge to look after their spinal health. The volunteers gained knowledge and skills to work effectively with schools, but they also changed the way they practiced to be more health promoting in their everyday work.

Expanding to a national program

The first stage of a national program was funded in 2004 and in 2008 it is now in its fifth year. Eight training programs have been run over the past five years, with 151 people attending from New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. By the end of 2008 we expect that over 100 chiropractors will remain connected to Healthy Spines. In any one year 30-40% of the group are available to support a Healthy Spines program in a local school.

By the end of 2007, 45 individual schools had participated in a Healthy Spines program across Victoria, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, involving a total of 56 programs. Over time, more schools are including Healthy Spines as part of their curriculum for a specific year level and running the program on an annual basis. This should grow to over 60 schools across five states by the end of 2008. Each annual program is evaluated, and a report written on the overall results achieved to date. The 2007 report is available for download at this website - see Research on Healthy Spines for more information.

The Healthy Spines program experiences of volunteer chiropractors are included in the reports, along with the outcomes and opinions of school staff, students and parents and guardians. The volunteer chiropractors have also written short articles for their profession's newsletter that are available on this website - see Healthy Spines Stories for more information.