Integrating Complementary & Alternative Therapies with Conventional Care

This publication is one in a series of educational resource materials on complementary and alternative health care issues published by the and is thus in the public domain; it may be quoted freely with proper credit. Please cite as follows: Integrating Complementary & Alternative Therapies with Conventional Care is one of a series of publications entitled The Convergence of Complementary, Alternative & Conventional Health Care, that has been developed as an educational resource for health professionals by the Program on Integrative Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These publications respond to the many questions raised as conventional health care practitioners encounter widespread and increasing use of complementary and alternative therapies. The health care " system " today is, in fact, a dynamic, rapidly changing world of multiple healing modalities that overlap and interact on many levels. Publications in the series The Convergence of Complementary, Alternative & Conventional Health Care highlight many of the key issues facing health professionals today— including assessing information, effectiveness, and integration of conventional, complementary, and alternative health care. Although the convergence of multiple health care models is not in doubt, there are many unanswered questions about how they will come together. This publication explores the issues raised as conventional health care providers move toward integrated practice, and describes a variety of options for doing so. Alternative Therapies With Conventional Care preface Thomas Edison once predicted, " The physician of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease. " While his vision has not yet materialized, recent trends in health care indicate a shift in that direction. Although it is likely that most 21st century health care providers will continue to " give medicine " as well as prescribe other forms of high-tech care, there are signs that these practices will more often occur in a holistic context that encourages self-care and supports self-healing and wellness. Health-care practice in the future — perhaps the very near future — could embrace and integrate a comprehensive array of therapies and healing approaches , drawing on both the technological advances of contemporary medicine and the modern versions of the diverse and sometimes ancient practices and concepts of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This potential convergence and integration of the different cultures of conventional and complementary care raises many …