READER RESPONSE:Below is a response to Regulation could cure mistrust, which appeared in Healthpluson January 27th
DEAR SIR,
In response to your article Regulation could cure mistrust, I wish to say that the Federation of Irish Complementary Therapies (FICTA) is in full agreement with the National Consumer Agency (NCA) spokeswoman’s remark that a “centralised resource on complementary therapies . . . would make life easier for consumers rather than . . . [having] to look at different registers for different therapies”.
Article 106 in the Health Strategy 2000 committed the Government to establishing a register of complementary therapists. On publication of the National Working Groups Report to the Minister on the Regulation of Complementary Therapists in 2006, Minister Harney said her department favoured a voluntary self-regulation regime for complementary therapists.
One of the report’s eight recommendations is that some therapies be regulated by statute on the basis of perceived risk to consumers. As a result of this, there seems to be confusion about the regulation of traditional therapies and the registration of the therapists who practise them.
Because of this, there remains the need for Government support such as that enjoyed by the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) in the UK and recognition of the commitment of the sector to establish a balanced, workable regulatory regime for complementary therapists in Ireland.
The model on which the CNHC is based was put to our Department of Health and Children by FICTA in 2001.
FICTA has continued to base its work for the regulation of complementary therapists on this model and is establishing an internal council which will address the issue of the training and education of therapists.
This is an essential first step towards any form of a nationally adopted regulation system for the sector in general.
With the assistance of Dr Ronnie Swain of University College Cork, FICTA has developed a Meta-Code (blueprint) of Ethics for the benefit and use of its members. A key directive of this code is that a therapist should not offer a therapy they are not adequately qualified to practise.
In her address to the WHO Congress on Traditional Medicine in Beijing 2008, Dr Margaret Chan asked “what explains the sharp rise in the use of complementary and alternative medicines?”.
In answering her own question, Dr Chan said “some commentators in journals such as the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine interpret this trend as a biting criticism of high-technology, specialised medicine, despite all its well-documented merits”.
A growing number of people are looking for the “more compassionate, personalised and comprehensive healthcare” that complementary therapists provide.
Chan makes no bones about the inherent dangers in this if traditional therapies and medicines are not “in the hands of properly trained, experienced and licensed practitioners performing an ancient, culturally respected, and useful art of compassionate care and healing”.
This has always been and continues to be the position of FICTA on the twin issues of the training and the regulation of complementary therapists in Ireland.
In conclusion, FICTA applauds Chan’s closing remark: “The time has never been better, and the reasons never greater, for giving traditional medicine its proper place in addressing the many ills that face all our modern – and our traditional – societies.”
Yours,
Lucy Mullee
Chairwoman, FICTA
Dundrum
Dublin 16