National Register to Make Complementary Medicine Safer
Consulting some complementary therapists is about to become a lot safer.
A steering committee, representing key complementary medicine stakeholder groups, has been established to set up the Australian Register of Naturopaths and Herbalists, which will independently register practitioners and set uniform standards for the naturopathic and herbal medicine workforce.
Nearly one in six Australians utilise complementary therapists as their primary care practitioners. Other complementary therapists such as chiropractors, osteopaths and Chinese Medicine practitioners are currently regulated or undergoing the process of being regulated by the government. However, naturopaths – by far Australia’s largest complementary therapy profession – have no such regulation. There are no national uniform standards for training or ethical practice, placing the public at risk from incompetent or unethical practitioners.
University of Queensland researcher and member of the steering committee, Jon Wardle, said lack of registration was a major public health issue and that this initiative was long overdue.
“Until we get an independent and completely transparent registration process for naturopaths the potential benefits from this sector will remain unrealised and the potential risk of harm to the public maximised,” Mr Wardle, of UQ’s School of Population Health, said.
Professor Stephen Myers of NatMed Research at Southern Cross University, also on the committee, said registration would enable consumers to check the credentials of practitioners.
"Many graduates in naturopathy and Western herbal medicine complete 3 to 4 years of full time study. By and large the field is made up of well educated professionals. But, unfortunately there is no protection from people with little or no qualifications attempting to practice as a naturopath or herbalist. Setting minimum standards is an idea whose time has come.
John Baxter, President of the National Herbalists Association said “Ensuring minimum standards of naturopaths and herbalists is something we’ve been pursuing for a long time. Registration will provide greater protection from bogus or unethical practitioners, improve communication between the mainstream and complementary health sectors, and lead to better health outcomes for Australians”.
Spero Tsindos, President of the Australian Naturopathic Practitioners Association, agrees: “This register will allow the public to make more informed choices about their complementary medicine practitioner. It will offer the same guarantee of quality and accountability that Australians expect of other registered health practitioners”.
Most health professions in Australia are currently undergoing a process of national registration, due to be fully in place for approved non-registered professions by 2012. Naturopaths and herbalists are currently not part of this process despite a strong recommendation by a report on the issue initiated by the Victorian government. The proposed register is expected to mirror this process and afford the public a similar level of protection until statutory regulation is undertaken by the government.
This register will be publicly available by mid-2010, allowing the public to ensure their practitioner is appropriately qualified and improving public safety in the interim, and the committee will advocate for government registration by 2012.
Submissions are invited on the development of the registration board and can be made at the steering committee website – www.aronah.org.
Media contact for interview
Paul Orrock
Steering Committee spokesman
Steering Committee:
Website: www.aronah.org
Steering Committee Members:
- Lesley Braun (Department of Surgery, Monash University & The Alfred Hospital, Vice President of National Herbalists Association of Australia);
- Angela Doolan (Naturopaths for Registration);
- Judy Jacka (Southern School of Natural Therapies);
- Pauline McCabe (School of Health Sciences, RMIT University);
- Karen Martin (Federation of Natural and Traditional Therapists);
- Stephen Myers (NatMed Research, Southern Cross University);
- Paul Orrock (School of Health & Human Sciences, Southern Cross University);
- Spero Tsindos (Australian Naturopathic Practitioners Association);
- Jon Wardle (School of Population Health, University of Queensland)