With the troubles of opioid addiction periodically making headlines, there is a lot of debate these days about how and when painkillers should be used.

The American Chiropractic Association believes that it can provide an effective alternative to those painkillers, and it’s making that position the centerpiece of a new awareness campaign.

To coincide with National Chiropractic Health Month in October, ACA will launch a campaign called #Chiropractic1st to specifically push for what it calls “a conservative approach to pain management.”

“Chiropractic services are an important first line of defense against pain and, in some cases, can lessen a patient’s reliance on addictive painkillers or prevent their use altogether,” ACA President David Herd said in a news release. “It makes sense to exhaust conservative forms of treatment such as chiropractic before moving on to riskier, potentially addictive pain medications.”

As part of the initiative, ACA will provide people in the industry access to resources on how to make the case for a drug-free approach using chiropractic techniques. In comments to Forbes, the group emphasized that it wanted to go social with this campaign.

“We intentionally made the theme a hashtag because the greatest tool we have to get our message out to a wide audience is social media,” explained ACA media team member Robert Hayden. “We’re asking doctors and all chiropractic supporters, including patients, to share the resources we will provide in our campaign toolkit soon via their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts.”

ACA isn’t the only group making the case for a treatment-first approach to dealing with pain. Back in June, the American Physical Therapy Association launched an awareness campaign of its own, called #ChoosePT.

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