February 17, 2005 – A first post-secondary institution dedicated to the teaching of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has just opened in Canada.
Affiliated with Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta, the Integrative Health Institute (IHI) has as its main mission the advancement of research and education in the field of complementary and alternative therapies.
The desire to integrate these therapies into the traditional practice of medicine will result, among other things, in the establishment of a range of training programs intended for both the general public and health professionals. Acupuncture, meditation, reflexology and herbal medicine are among the disciplines that will be studied there.
The Institute was originally the initiative of a Calgary community health network. It is now joining the Faculty of Public and Community Health Studies at Mount Royal College. Dean Brenda Hendrickson noted that the outreach of the Institute’s activities will not only be local and provincial, but also national. “One of the main objectives of the Institute will be to facilitate access for consumers and health professionals to the most recent scientific research,” she commented in a press release.
The lack of regulation of alternative therapies as well as the interactions between natural products and drugs worry the World Health Organization. “There is no doubt about the need to disseminate fair and credible information on a more massive scale about any non-traditional treatment”, for her part, noted the president of the board of directors, Patricia Trottier.
The interest of Canadians in alternative approaches has already been evident for several years. A polling firm reported in 2000 that 60% to 70% of the Canadian population had already taken advantage of complementary or alternative health care.
Marie france Coutu – PasseportSanté.net
According to The Globe and Mail.
To visit the Integrative Health Institute website: http://www.mtroyal.ca/integrativehealth.
