Today naturopathic medicine was represented in a serious way in our nation’s capital. A breakfast event at Parliament House, Canberra, organised by the NHAA in conjunction with other collaborating partners, allowed us to officially launch the Health Technology Assessment for Naturopathy onto the world stage.
This event served two purposes:
- To bring the recently published Health Technology Assessment for Naturopathy to the attention of policy-makers on the national stage.
- To explain to policy makers the public-safety imperative concerning registration of the herbal and naturopathic profession.
It was great to be personally involved in this launch, and to speak one-on-one to political staffers about our place in health care, and why they should get behind the move towards statutory registration of herbalists and naturopaths.
About the HTA
The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is a systematic examination of the nature of, and evidence around, a particular health care practice or technology (read more about HTA’s here). This is the first time that such a document has been published for naturopathic medicine, and it is a thoroughly comprehensive document totalling more than 700 pages, with 41 chapters and 51 individual naturopaths from around the globe contributing over a 2 year period.
HTA’s serve as a way of demonstrating to policy-makers the importance and relevance of a health practice or technology – something the herbal and naturopathic professions desperately need to do. Published by the World Naturopathic Federation (WNF), but with the research being fully funded by the Naturopaths & Herbalists Association of Australia (NHAA), this publication is a seminal work in the evolution of naturopathic medicine.
For those interested in reading more (and I encourage every naturopathic practitioner and student to at least read the Executive Summary), you can learn more through the NHAA’s Health Technology Assessment page – here you will find background information, short videos from key naturopathic academics involved in the process, and links to the various chapters.
The Case for Registration
Being able to sit together with politicians and their staffers over breakfast gave us an excellent opportunity to put the case for registration of the herbal and naturopathic professions in Australia.
As well meaning as self-regulation may be, the evidence clearly demonstrates that it has failed in almost every significant measure:
- We still do not have a single uniform set of educational standards (or even a standard qualification level) for naturopaths and herbalists.
- We do not have consistent codes of ethics or practice.
- There is nothing stopping anybody – with or without qualifications – calling themselves a naturopath or herbalist, and treating members of the public, some of whom may be in a very vulnerable state physically and/or psychologically.
- There is no proactive process in place to try to reduce the risk of harm to the public from unethical or improperly qualified practitioners.
- There is no single body to which patients can raise concerns or complaints about practices or behaviour of their herbal or naturopathic practitioner.
- We have a ridiculous number of different “professional” associations, some of which are little more than scams “recognising” any and all practitioners regardless of their type or level of qualification, but providing little in the way of support or leadership within the profession.
It is time to change the status-quo. Enquiry after enquiry for the last few decades has emphasised the need for statutory registration. The World Naturopathic Federation requires member groups and bodies in each country to support appropriate educational and regulatory standards. Fortunately the two organisations representing Australia as Full Members of the WNF (the CMA and the NHAA), along with the Associate and Educational Members, have been collaborating to this end through the Australian Naturopathic Council.
Now is the time for practitioners and students to make their voices heard through their associations. Only a handful of associations actively support statutory registration of herbalists and naturopaths, and only the NHAA and CMA are Full Members of the WNF.
If you wish to ensure that herbal and naturopathic medicine are true health professions (i.e. they have nationally uniform minimum standards of education, and have appropriate accountability), then consider which association you join each year. Make sure your chosen association actively supports and is lobbying for statutory registration, and not just sitting on the fence while other groups do the heavy lifting.