Melbourne Holistic Health Group

Published in Clinic Information on 31 December 2009 by Melbourne Holistic Health Group

Defining ‘what is complementary medicine’ has been a contentious issue. For a while, all medical care that did not fall within the dominant western biomedical model was ‘alternative’ medicine. The term ‘alternative’ became synonymous with ‘fringe’ and ‘unorthodox’ and was seen as a part of a counter culture that was inherently unscientific. The issue with ‘alternative medicine’ is that it implies that it is a practice of medicine that is used instead of, or as an ‘alternative to’ western medicine. The reality is that a lot of so called ‘alternative’ medicines were, and are, being utilised quite harmoniously with biomedicine, and practitioners did not consider their medicines mutually exclusive. The phrase CAM or ‘complementary and alternative medicine’ was later adopted and more recently ‘complementary medicine’ alone has become the term of reference employed to refer to such therapies. This definition is also not necessarily ideal, as ‘complementary’ assumes a role that is an ‘adjunct to’, rather than all disciplines being able to complement each other. ‘Natural medicine’, whilst a broad term, may better convey the role and field of medicine that involves natural non-drug based medical treatment.

Complementary medicine (CM) generally refers to a wide range of health care practices that do not use drugs or invasive techniques. Treatments may include herbal medicines, homoeopathic medicines or nutritional and other supplements. In Australia, the common complimentary therapies practiced are: naturopathy, herbal medicine, homoeopathy, acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, aromatherapy, all of the massage therapies, osteopathy and chiropractic (see Table). These disciplines generally share a common belief in the holistic philosophy of health, and the principles associated with this.

This table gives a brief description of the most common disciplines practised in Australia and the most common natural medicine disciplines practised in Australia and New Zealand

Naturopathy is not made up of a specified group of disciplines and each of the colleges or universities may train their students differently. A practitioner who uses a multi disciplinary approach has usually trained as a naturopath. Naturopaths may be predominantly herbalists, homoeopaths or nutritionists, or a combination of these.

The quality of training is extremely varied and at present there are no regulations in Australia governing the practice of natural therapies. Currently the issues of regulation and educational standards are under review by a variety of state and Commonwealth government initiated processes. Although registration has not been established in Australia yet, a recent Victorian government review of the practice of western herbal medicine and naturopathy, concluded in favour of registration of practitioners. Registration of the naturopathic profession would lead to greater integration of naturopaths into mainstream health care, as well as ensure a minimum standard of education of practitioners. Many practitioners are concerned with the lack of regulation and belong to professional associations as a way of indicating their standard of education and to demonstrate their commitment to improving the status of their profession.