How to improve our overburdened Health Care System?
Long waiting lists, high costs and a limited budget are causing a strain on our society.
Could a better Prevention System, better healthcare information, education and attitude be the answer?
Could this be the future for Holistic Preventative Naturopathy?
With the enormous advances in Science, Technology and Medicine, our Health System, within the next 10 years, will be seeing some dramatic changes.
This article discusses prevention and the possibilities for a more significant role for Naturopaths. It will also discuss conventional medicine and possible savings in our budget restrained Health System.
We have to reflect on our present Health System and its possible shortcomings to understand the paradigm shift in how Active Prevention and Naturopathy may be seen in the future.
Our Medical Health System is under severe budget threat. It may not be sustainable for much longer … just looking at the statistics, a bleak future could lay ahead if no changes are made.
Our population is getting older, and our health conditions are becoming more serious. Chronic and Lifestyle Diseases are at an all-time high.
We may be living longer, but we are certainly not getting any healthier.
Who is going to pay for the ever-increasing health cost?
Time to concentrate on an Active Preventative – Restorative and Regenerative Health Care System.
5 reasons why Conventional Medicine has failed to make people healthier:
Note: This should NOT be seen as attacking the medical system. It is meant as a constructive criticism to possibly find better ways for a healthy lifestyle.
- Doctors “DO NOT” as a rule practice “Active Prevention”. – We have a disease management system, NOT a Health Improvement System. – We will continue to have expensive disease care until we prioritise Active Prevention.
- Doctors “DO NOT” generally treat patients holistically or as individuals; their treatment is “Disease-Specific”.
- Doctors “DO NOT” guide patients to take ACTIVE steps towards their own health. – Conventional treatments tend to keep patients “PASSIVE”. – It is not enough to suggest a better diet or lifestyle; ACTIVE STRATEGIES are needed to support a patient to achieve better health and compliance.
- Doctors “DO NOT” or Can Not treat a patient if NO diagnosis has been established. – If no disease is diagnosed by appropriate tests, Doctors are limited to helping a patient, and Patients may go home with the same symptoms they came in with. – Incidentally, 70 to 80% of patients who consult a Complementary Practitioner do so because of not having had sufficient answers from their Doctor.
- Doctors “DO NOT” generally treat patients for prevention or treatment to support/improve patients’ wellbeing.
Natural Therapies, like Naturopathy, are the missing link to educating and supporting patients’ health.
Doctors are limited by time and costs; more money could be saved by concentrating a GP’s work on essential medical tasks.
Naturopaths are educated to deliver Active Preventative Health Care Services.
A Preventative – Restorative – Regenerative Health System is “labour intensive” it means educating and taking direct action with a patient to make sure treatment and recommendations are adhered to.
Preventive medicine or proactive healthcare is the healthcare in which the practitioner, with the patient’s cooperation, initiates the effort to prevent illness through treatments, dietary advice, and recommendations about lifestyle changes the patient has to practice.
Naturopaths are prevention specialists; their “primary care of concern is to prevent disease”, manage health to optimal levels, and for cases of chronic diseases, provide strategies that will help patients live life to the fullest.
Preventative health is the only future sustainable health care model.
Naturopaths are experts in preventing disease by assessing risk factors, heredity and susceptibility to illness, practising holistically, and recognising that our bodies are complex and that physical, emotional and mental wellbeing are interconnected with our internal and external environment.
We cannot compartmentalise ourselves into symptoms. We are affected by everything we consume, interact with and experience. No two people are exactly alike.
Individualised preventative treatment strategies are necessary for optimal long-term health.
Proactive healthcare aims to prevent or slow down physical deterioration, hinder the onslaught of other symptoms, provide mind and emotional encouragement, and assist the patient in practising an optimal healthy lifestyle.
What proactive Naturopaths are concentrating on:
Preventative – Restorative – Regenerative, in addition to regular naturopathic works.
Every Naturopathic Clinic could have regular group sessions for:
General health Improvement: Adopting an individual styled Diet – Weightloss and Diabetes
Physical Health Groups: Yoga classes, walking groups, Tai Chi and personal fitness.
Mind Management Groups: Stress Management – Relaxation and Meditation – attitudes and change techniques – Motivation
It is not enough to explain a diet to a patient; one needs to assure the patient is compliant with the recommendation up to the point the aspired outcome is achieved.
Group or class sessions have been proven successful.
Ongoing support must be assured, not just initial consultations and hoping for the best.
Without support groups, people are unlikely to reach their preventative treatment goals .. patients “fall off the wagon”, and they will need re-motivation and ongoing “affordable” support.
Could this be the Future of Naturopathy?
Article by: Dieter L. Editor of useNature
