Irish Medical Journal Study on CAM

Articles on Homeopathy

Irish Medical Journal Study on CAM

From Irishhealing.ie, Editor Clodagh Sheehy:

Irish Medical Journal Study on CAM

Massage and acupuncture top the league of popular complementary and alternative therapies in this country.

Reiki is also used more widely in Ireland.

A study in the Irish Medical Journal of 23 alternative therapies used by patients attending doctors in a Dublin GP practice showed that 39pc of people had used massage and 37pc had used acupuncture in the previous 12 months.

The findings were largely in line with trends in the UK, USA , Canada and Australia with one exception.

Mind body energy therapy Reiki is more popular in Ireland than in the other countries.

“This highlights the western trend of acceptance of new emerging therapies for which there is often insufficient evidence for any benefit” says the study.

The study found:

The Top Therapies

1.Massage therapy – 39.3pc

2.Acupuncture – 37.1pc

3.Aromatherapy – 18.2pc

4.Reiki – 18pc

5.Reflexology – 16.9pc

6.Chiropractic – 15.7pc

7.Herbalism – 14.6pc

8.Traditional Chinese Medicine – 11.1pc

9.Homeopathy – 10.1pc

10.Spiritual healing 5.6pc

11.Osteopathy – 4.5pc

12.Ayurvedic Medicine – 4.5pc

13.Shiatsu – 3.4pc

14.Nutritional therapy – 3.4pc

15.Transcendental Meditation – 2.2pc

16.Kinesiology – 2.2pc

17.Hypnotherapy – 1.1pc

18.Crystal therapy – 1.1pcAlexander Technique and Dowsing had not been used by any of those surveyed.

Other therapies, which included magnetic therapy and hyperbaric therapy accounted for 4.5pc.

UCC Conference

On 14/15 November 2012 University College Cork held a Conference entitled“Non-biomedical Response to Trauma and Distress”

Orla Broderick and Alastair Yarrow, both ISH Registered Homeopaths, conducted workshops at this Conference.

Alastair has kindly shared his Power Point presentation with us which you can have a look at here.

We are told that approximately 400 people attended the Conference.

GHANA HOMEOPATHY PROJECT

Greetings Homeopaths:

I want to let you know of the work that is happening in Ghana, with the Ghana Homeopathy Project. I have been here nearly six months now as the long term coordinator and will be here another two months. Homeopathy has been in Ghana for a while as Homeopathy Without Borders came and taught here for 7 years in the 1990's. However, there is a lot of radionics style homeopathy and not so much classical homeopathy. They like machines here!! So, we have been looking to start a new training program which has now begun and we are working with the government to get accreditation for the program. There is a bill being proposed for Alternative Medicine, so the government is seeking to find ways to integrate various alternative modalities into the health care system. So this is a good time for us to be here.

The project is also involved in supporting a rural clinic and we are wanting to establish a clinical training program for visiting homeopaths. This could be a great opportunity for people to come to Ghana, experience prescribing in rural areas and get a good feel for the country.

I am attaching the newsletter of the project and also a couple of blogs I wrote of our experiences in the rural clinic.

We are looking for volunteers to come here, ideally for a longer period. We need a new coordinator after I leave and also experienced teachers to offer their services for shorter periods of time. It's a great place to get experience of Africa and homeopathy is growing here. Please be in touch with me if you're interested.

Of course, there are ongoing financial needs and the newsletter has information on how you can donate to the project. You can also go to my fundraising site which is Everything is appreciated.

I hope you are all well and your homeopathy practices are flourishing.

With Best Wishes,

Richard

ECCH News January 2011

To download the Latest News from the ECCH please click here. The file is quiet is large and it may take a minute or two to download.

ECCH NEWS UPDATE

Dear Colleagues, I am writing to update you on various developments to do with my work on your behalf in Brussels.EU Homeopathy Day 2010The third annual 'EU Homeopathy Day' event took place in the European Parliament last Tuesday afternoon . I had the honour of being asked to chair and speak at the event. It was great to see ECCH representatives Christine Liebing Gabel (VKHD, Germany) Fotini Tsandila (HAG, Greece) and Karin Mont (ARH, UK) in the audience as well as Nadia Aziz from LHC Belgium and to have had their support. If you scroll down to the bottom of the following linked page there are copies of the presentations and some photos of the event. The presentation from Ken Mayne RSHom on the Northern Ireland Pilot Project that involved 3 RSHoms was particularly well received. Enid Segall from the League of Friends of the RLHH spoke on behalf of the patients. At one point Ken Mayne RSHom, Ewald Stoteler a well know Dutch homeopath and myself were lined up on the speakers platform. It's a rare event when three homeopaths speak in the European Parliament

Stakeholder group one year on and still working together.It is just a year now since a group of CAM stakeholders representing patients, practitioners, doctors and manufacturers had a meeting in Brussels with the Director General of DG Sanco, Mr Robert Madelin. That meeting was initiated and organised through the efforts of myself and Seamus Connolly of the European Shiatsu Federation under the banner of EFCAM . Since then the stakeholder group has continued to meet and work together on a number of projects that came out of discussions that took place at that meeting. The phrase CAM is the only way that the EU relates to our sector and by merging our specific therapy interests into a general CAM agenda we have made real progress over the past year. What follow is some brief accounts of a number of initiatives that have come to fruition recently. CAM Formation of an MEP Interest Group for CAM in the European ParliamentOn 16 March I attended the kick-off meeting of this new 'interest group' in the European Parliament. Organised by the CAM stakeholder group in conjunction with one or two MEPs who hosted the room and chaired the meeting, the meeting involved discussion of how the group would be run and what sort of topics the group will cover in the meetings that will take place 3-4 times a year.

The IG must be run by a group made up an MEP President and some co-presidents who make all the decisions - based on our guidance. The first meeting is planned for June 1 or 2 2010. Our initial call for interest brought forth some 30 MEPs and once we have got the group rolling we expect it will attract more interest. If any of you think you know of an MEP who would be interested please let me know.It is a very good time to set up such a group in the Parliament. Apart from the fact it complements our work with the Commission it ties in with the Parliament's own policy priorities as identified in a document from their own internal policy division. In it there is a paragraph on Health Professionals that states:Health professionals - The Commission has launched a discussion on the healthcare workforce to identify possible Community action to address challenges EU health professionals face, including aging of the population and of the health workforce, mobility and the lack of health professionals in certain regions, and the future needs for education and training to benefit from innovative health technology. In a broader sense the conditions under which health professionals can offer their services to people who need them in the EU should be addressed.

At present there is a complete mix of situations where certain types of treatments, particularly outside the official medical establishment, are banned in some places, tolerated in others and accepted and their costs reimbursed in other locations. This would affect practices such as homeopathy, acupuncture, naturopathy, etc. A far reaching inquiry into the potential of the so called alternative therapies could be a matter of relevance for Europeans in the coming decade. Moreover, as the scientific research agenda is strongly conditioned by the interests of industry, the EU could play a leading role in financing with public moneys trials to assess alternative therapies. This would set a world premier.CAM Stakeholder Group Meets Officers of DGSANCOOn 24 March the CAM Stakeholder Group representatives including myself met with a number of officers from different departments of DG SANCO in a joint video conference that took place between their Brussels office and their Luxembourg office. The CAM group all assembled in the Brussels office. The meeting lasted two hours and covered a range of topics from an agenda that we had submitted beforehand. This was a very useful exchange of views and information and went some way towards building the understanding and awareness of various people in DGSANCO of our sector following the meeting a year ago with the Director General referred to above. As the Director General is likely to be moving on soon this meeting will help ensure a continuity of contact within the Commission.CAM Conference Grant Application Submitted to DG SANCOLast week the consortium of CAM stakeholders of which ECCH is a member submitted an application to the Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs (DG SANCO) for 50% funding in order to hold a high level conference on CAM in Brussels in the Spring of next year. Our total working budget for the conference is 50,000 Euros. If we are successful in our application it means that the stakeholder group will have to find 25,000 Euros to match fund the grant from DG SANCO. Given that we are 8 organisations in the consortium there will be an expectation on ECCH that we contribute ~ 3150 ¤ to help pay for the conference. Clearly this is an item that we will have to discuss at our meeting in Helsinki. In the meantime we are going to seek further grant funding from charitable foundations and industry in the hope that we can reduce the stakeholders' financial commitment.A presence for CAM and EFCAM on the DG SANCO EU Health Portal Web-siteAfter a long process of discussion and negotiation over the text with the Information Unit of DG SANCO that started with a meeting I attended last summer in Luxembourg, a short section on CAM is now going to included on the EU Health Portal . This is a breakthrough in that it acknowledges that CAM is now an issue of interest to DGSANCO and for EU citizens. It had to be kept absolutely basic and they agreed to just three links for web-sites being included - one of which, I am pleased to say, is for EFCAM from which there is a link to ECCH. I will let you know as soon as this page goes 'live'Membership of the EU Health Policy Forum.

FINALLY I am very pleased to be able to report to you that EFCAM has been given the seat for CAM on the closed 52 seat membership of the Health Policy Forum of DG SANCO. We were successful against other bids, including one from ECHAMP and one from the European Committee for Homeopathy on behalf of CAM doctors, ECH had previously held the seat. The HPF is made up of a cross-section of representatives of stakeholder groups from right across the EU health sector . This includes patient, disease, professional and industry groups. I submitted the application on behalf of EFCAM in November 2009 and the process of decision-making took until 23 March before I received official notification of our success. The other medical members of our CAM stakeholder group were clearly disappointed at not being accepted but I have given an undertaking to them that I, as the representative who will represent EFCAM, will represent the interests of the whole sector and not just those of EFCAM's members. Nonetheless, this is a real success for the work we have put in with EFCAM over the last 4 years or so.--

Stephen Gordon MCH RSHom FSHom

General Secretary European Central Council of Homeopaths

International Council for HomeopathySchool House,

Market PlaceKenninghall,

Norfolk NR16 2AH

United Kingdom

Tel/Fax: 0044 (0) 1953 888163

Mobile: 0044 (0) 7767360944

Email:

Web-site:

Web-site:

The Homeopathic Times,the journal of the Irish Society of Homeopaths.

The Society journal was revived in October 2010 with a special edition for the 20th Anniversary of the Irish Society of Homeopaths. Among the articles contained in it were : Sensational Homeopathy [Mary Aspinwall], End of Life Care [Anne Marie O’Bradaigh], Buddleia [Pauline O’Reilly], Soul Loss and Recovery - Tabernanthe Iboga [Declan Hammond], Guinness [Beate McMullen] , Treating Autistic Spectrum Disorders [Michael Farrelly], Awakening the Heart – community work in Fatima [Rita Garland], The Unwanted Stone [Derek Hennessy] and The Luther Legacy – homeopathy in Ireland in the nineteenth century [Rhóda Uí Chonaire].

Spring 2011 edition:

Green Grow the Rushes O [Marina Lynch], When Leukaemia meets Homeopathy [Crea O’Dowd], Irish Well Water [Mary Carroll]

The Homeopathic Treatment of Eating Disordered Clients [Paula Seth],

Darby O’Gill – Agaricus [Seamus Byrne], The Luther Legacy 2 – the Scriven Family [Rhóda Uí Chonaire], Quantum Homeopathy- an interview with Ab Straatman [Rita Garland], Homeopathy at the Electric Picnic [Mark O’Sullivan] and Crocodile Kid [Ciarán Broadberry].

Autumn 2011 edition:

Please contact the editor, Rhóda Uí Chonaire, if you have an article for submission. Deadline: August 15th 2011

Advertising rates range from €350 for full colour back cover to €80 for quarter page, single colour. “

Radio Interviews, Newspaper Articles/Responses, TV Interviews (in Ireland) on homeopathy with the ISH Media Team, ISH Committee Members and ISH Members.

If you should have any problems downloading the above .pdf document you can also download it from our Members Download Area.

Nearly all of the above are available to view online at the various newspaper or programme sites,

just Google them and look around.

If anyone has news about any other contacts with the Media, local or national,

Please let us know so that we can put it onto our website.

If you know any local or national journalist or broadcaster who is interested in doing pieces

on any aspect of Homeopathy please tell us or give them the ISH office number.

As you can see we are all doing our best to get out there, let people know about

Homeopathy and maintain the balance in controversial pieces.

Get texting – if anyone hears anything on the air about Homeopathy please text the

show as quickly as possible. Get your family/patients to do the same if you can.

The more we can get the positive stories out there the better!

Let’s use this media exposure to our BENEFIT! Turn it around and get

the CORRECT information about Homeopathy out there.

Keep checking the ISH website and your member's area for information,

press statements and updates.

The Committee & Media Team

28% of Online Patient Enquiries Go Unanswered - Courtest Aoife of Revahealth.com (Dec 2009)

More than a quarter of patients who use the internet to contact health clinics are reporting that they never receive a reply, and a full 60% claim that their enquiry was not responded to in an effective manner. These are the shocking results of a survey of over 7,000 patients carried out during 2009 by leading healthcare search engine RevaHealth.com.

The main reasons cited by patients for why they weren't happy with the responses they did receive were:

The clinic took too long to respond

The response itself was unprofessional

The patient never received a follow up phone call

Patients also indicated that:

They expect an instant automatic response to confirm receipt of their enquiry

They want to be told when they should expect a personal all or email response

They expect that personal response by the end of the next working day

Clinics that don't meet these expectations risk losing the patient as a paying customer. To find out why clinics were falling so far short of meeting patients' expectations, RevaHealth.com also surveyed 30 health clinics and asked them what problems they were facing.

Why Do Clinics Find It Hard To Cope?

The single biggest problem reported by clinics was that they didn't have the resources to deal with email enquiries in a timely fashion. Other daily tasks and issues often took precedence and often there was no single person responsible for looking after the clinic's email account, meaning emails got lost or ignored regularly.

This same lack of resources led to poor follow up procedures with potential patients. Rather than making phone calls to patients who hadn't yet committed, clinics were waiting for them to call back themselves.

The next biggest problem was that the clinics were experiencing technical problems but didn't have permanent staff who could resolve the issues. Sometimes emails to customers would "bounce" back to the clinic and no one would contact the customer to correct the mistake. Other times, their contact form would break and they wouldn't know who to contact to get it fixed.

Why Are Patients Increasingly Turning To The Internet?