June is Pride Month, which traces its origins to the Stonewall Riots of 1969, when members of the LGBTQIA2+ community rose up against years of discrimination and exclusion. They refused to accept that things simply had to remain the way they were. What followed was a grassroots movement that demonstrated a powerful truth: meaningful change begins when ordinary people recognize a problem, organize around it, and commit themselves to creating something better.
This month, the TCMO had the opportunity to host an exhibitor booth and present a poster at the Alliance for Healthier Communities Conference. The conference theme, Attachment for Everyone: Centring Health Equity in Ontario’s Primary Health Care Expansion, focused on improving attachment for people who are underserved, marginalized, or disconnected from care. It was a reminder that many of the most effective solutions in healthcare, much like the grassroots movements that inspired them, begin by identifying unmet needs and finding practical ways to address them.
The Alliance for Healthier Communities is a provincial network of community-governed primary healthcare organizations committed to improving access, health equity, and patient outcomes across Ontario. Many of its member organizations serve populations that have historically faced barriers to care, including marginalized, underserved, and vulnerable communities. Their work is rooted in a simple but powerful belief: everyone deserves access to healthcare.
For the TCMO, participating in this conference was an opportunity to be part of important conversations about the future of healthcare in Ontario and to demonstrate how Registered Acupuncturists and Registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners can contribute as valuable members of interdisciplinary primary healthcare teams. As Ontario works to improve access, attachment, and health outcomes, our profession has an important role to play in helping meet those goals.
Having our poster accepted was both exciting and encouraging. More importantly, it allowed us to engage directly with front-line workers, clinicians, administrators, and executive leaders who are actively seeking innovative solutions to some of the challenges facing our healthcare system.
Our poster highlighted a community acupuncture program being delivered at Afiya Spine and Pain Institute. Funded by the clinic and offered at no cost to patients, the program uses group-based auricular acupuncture to provide frequent, low-barrier support for individuals living with chronic pain and mental health challenges. With patient attachment serving as a central focus of the conference, the program offered a practical example of how Registered Acupuncturists and Registered Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners can help address a growing healthcare challenge. Patients with chronic pain and mental health concerns often require more frequent follow-up and support than overburdened healthcare teams can provide. By creating an additional point of contact within the care team, acupuncture can help patients remain connected to care, strengthen engagement, and expand system capacity in a cost-effective way.
Again and again, attendees asked about funding. They recognized the value of the model and wanted to know how it could be implemented within their own organizations. The fact that Afiya Spine and Pain Institute chose to fund the program directly because they saw the benefit to patients resonated strongly with many of the people we spoke with. It demonstrated that innovative solutions do not always require large budgets or complex infrastructure. Sometimes they begin with a willingness to try something new and a commitment to meeting patients where they are.
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Meaghan Kleovoulos, R.Ac, R.TCMP, whose dedication has been instrumental in delivering the program, and to Dr. Elle Surgent and Dr. Monty Sawalha of Afiya Spine and Pain Institute for their leadership and vision. Their commitment to improving access to care made this project possible.
In many ways, the program itself reflects the grassroots origins of acupuncture in North America. Community acupuncture, the NADA protocol, and Battlefield Acupuncture all emerged from a desire to make care more accessible, affordable, and available to people who might otherwise go without. They were practical solutions developed within the community to meet real community needs. It is fitting that these ideas were being discussed in a setting dedicated to improving access to care for underserved populations.
The conference experience left me feeling both inspired and challenged.
There was genuine curiosity in what our profession can contribute to primary healthcare and patient attachment. People were listening. They were asking questions. They were looking for solutions.
At the same time, it became clear that much work remains. Many healthcare leaders still do not fully understand our training, our scope, or the role we can play within integrated healthcare teams. Public awareness remains limited. If we want Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture to become more deeply integrated into mainstream healthcare, we cannot assume others will tell our story for us.
Like the grassroots movements that came before us, progress will happen because practitioners choose to participate. It will happen because we continue educating the public, building relationships with other healthcare professionals, engaging with our communities, and demonstrating the value of our medicine through our work.
After attending this conference, I am more convinced than ever that the opportunity is there. The future of our profession is not something we will find. It is something we will create. Like every grassroots movement that has come before us, its success will depend on people who are willing to show up, contribute, and keep moving forward together. The seeds have been planted. What grows next depends on what we choose to cultivate together.
