October 8, 1998 – In a press release issued on October 8, the Council for Alternative and Complementary Health Approaches (CAACS), the only Quebec organization bringing together consumers, professional associations and trainers in alternative and complementary health approaches, announced that it will prioritize the definition of the training that AACS workers should have.
This priority was adopted by the new board of directors of the organization chaired by Ms. Claudine Larocque, president of the Federal Bureau of Alternative Medicine (BFMA) of the Federation of Professional Employees and Executives of Quebec (FPPSCQ) affiliated to the CSN.
The CAACS is the only organization that represents all the groups involved in the issue of alternative health approaches: workers and therapists, trainers and consumers. It currently brings together professional associations of more than 1000 stakeholders (somatic educators, psychotherapists, homeopaths, osteopaths, acupuncturists, orthotherapists, dentists, naturopaths) oriented towards alternative health approaches and several training schools. Consumers are represented by a delegate from the Federation of the Golden Age of Quebec (FADOQ) – Island of Montreal region.
It is within its mandate to promote the protection of the public in relation to alternative and complementary health approaches that the CAACS has established that it is a priority to define training standards. According to the CAACS, self-regulation is the only way to ensure the protection of the public while waiting for the Office des professions du Québec to pursue the recognition of alternative and complementary health approaches, as it has done with chiropractic, l acupuncture and midwives.
The leaders of the CAACS are firmly convinced that a consensus on training standards is an indispensable and necessary step for the establishment of professional orders in certain disciplines, such as osteopathy and homeopathy, and for other structures of ‘supervision for the multiple techniques found in alternative and complementary health approaches.
The CAACS will begin consultation work with its members in November and plans to produce a working document by the end of spring 1999.
The board of directors of CAACS is currently formed by:
- Ms. Claudine Larocque, president, delegate of the BFMA-FPPSCQ-CSN;
- Ms. Chantal Martin, vice-president, delegate of the Regroupement pour education somatic;
- Ms. Danielle Dionne, Sec-Treasurer, Director of the Quebec Institute of Integral Reflexology;
- Dr Michel Demers, delegate of the Quebec Holistic Dental Association; and
- Mr. Roger Cormier, FADOQ delegate – Island of Montreal region.
For information: Council for Alternative and Complementary Health Approaches, 10510, rue Berri, Montreal (Quebec), Canada, H3L 2H1
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