Making a Bridge between Holistic Therapists and One Billion People without Healthcare

Today, one billion people around the world do not have access to any kind of healthcare[1].  ‘Nearly nine million children die before the age of five’; two and ‘at least 529,000 women die each year of pregnancy-related causes’.[2]  There are people around the world, who are in dire need of help, and sadly this reality is not confined to countries abroad; the health status of our own indigenous people is alarming. ‘Aboriginal people can expect to live up to twenty years less than non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous life expectancy is so low because Aboriginal health standards in Australia are now so bad that 45% of Aboriginal men and 34% of women die before the age of 45, and 71% percent die before they reach the age of 65.’[3]

 

Meeting the Millennium Development Goals

To counter these statistics the United Nations (UN) held its largest event ever in Australia on the 30th of August to the 1st of September 2010 in Melbourne to host the world’s health experts on how we can globally meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). The MDG’s are a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by the 2015 target date. The UN announced a new major commitment in women and children's health by focusing on Goal 4, reducing child mortality and Goal 5, improving maternal health.

 

More than 300 non-government organizations (NGO’s) from 70 countries attended the convention to discuss the world's progress towards reaching the MDG’s.  The NGO’s who attended the conference made an fevered plea for all governments, agencies, corporations and individuals to deliver on their human rights obligations to more than a billion people living in poverty, by committing the financial and political resources necessary to achieve the Goals. Issues highlighted at the DPI/NGO Conference leverages discussion and policy making at the UN Assembly related to Global Health.

 

Utilizing Holistic Therapists to Solve the Need for more Healthcare Workers

At the conference the UN made a commitment to increase the number of health workers required to achieve the MDGs and incorporate this into the Action Agenda for achieving the MDGs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘4.3 million extra health workers (doctors, nurses and midwives) are needed worldwide to make essential healthcare accessible to all’.[4]

The colossal challenges we face to tackle our global health crisis is very clear. Finding enough healthcare workers to meet the demand of 1 billion people is an overwhelming situation, however if more NGO’s and the UN bridged the gap between Allopathic medical doctors and Holistic medical practitioners then the wealth of support would be paramount. 

Of the 300 NGO’s who attended the conference in Melbourne, unfortunately only two utilized qualified holistic healthcare volunteers in projects for the disadvantaged and vulnerable.

The World Health Organization claims that ‘85% of all healthcare workers around the world are complimentary therapists or use Traditional Medicines.’6In the face of this statistic one can see that there is a huge force of therapists in the world that can help meet the MDG’s, but are not being utilized.

The major disparity between the current model being used for aid work today, and the model that could be used if holistic therapists were integrated, is that holistic therapists could also treat presenting ailments alongside allopathic doctors, but can also provide preventative measures and education, addressing the deeper causes of the health concerns around the world.

 

Education in Healthcare

Knowledge is the most sustainable and cheapest healthcare known to man, which is currently lacking in the current Healthcare NGO model. Given that many conditions are preventable, every healthcare interaction should include prevention support and education on self-management. Healthcare teams that stimulate education of healthcare into communities, and that treat the whole person rather than the disease could likely change the alarming and disappointing statistics of failed healthcare systems today. Holistic therapists working within aid work could compile preventative healthcare information for the media to spread to disadvantaged areas of the world.

As stated at the Melbourne conference by James Wagwau from Kenya - Education Editor for New Vision, Uganda’s leading newspaper – healthcare education is enormously lacking in disadvantaged areas around the world, and suggested that the media should be taken advantage of to play a critical role in informing and educating masses of people on:

1. Where they can receive treatment,

2. How to prevent disease,

3. Bringing major health issues to light.

Wagwau believes that by using the media, information could easily and quickly be received, especially in rural areas. This is a relatively easy and cost effective preventative healthcare measure that the UN should seriously consider.

If holistic healthcare practitioners could mobilize preventative health information to provide for radio or newspapers in developing countries this could be spread into small and rural communities who are without any healthcare information. This information could also be supplied as handouts or booklets to NGO’s working in poverty and health around the world.

A nutritional and lifestyle guideline for pregnant women alone could be useful for saving lives of unborn children as well as mothers by reducing complications. In India for example, pregnant woman are forced to collect heavy water on top of their heads and carry it from a well to home. Many women miscarry from this type of work, and can hemorrhage to their deaths. Men do not do this work, as its taboo, and they still do not believe it hurts their wives to do it. It is not our jobs to change century old taboos, but we may challenge them by providing healthcare information that can save many lives.

Holistic therapies can help combat the world’s health crisis, and could play a large part at combating two of the main key MDG’s, both 4 &5, reducing child mortality and improving maternal health. By researching ways in how holistic healthcare can help meet just goals 4 &5, we can make a definite change in perspective for NGO’s, policy makers, and the UN by the next conference. Holistic healthcare should not just be reserved for people who can afford to pay for our services when so many are dying without any healthcare.

The healthcare industry can support NGOs and holistic therapist to deliver healthcare to over a billion people living in poverty, publicizing aid work opportunities and by committing the finances and donations of old stock to NGOs for use.  Practitioners can volunteer their time in Australia and abroad, or they can use their skills in collating research to publicize, so there can be a paradigm shift in the use of holistic therapists knowledge into more NGOs to meet the needs of more people, and one day make a shift into global healthcare policy making.

 

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References

1. Action for Global Health. Viewed on the World Wide Web on the 20/10/10: actionforglobalhealth.eu/fileadmin/AfGH/Publications/HRH_briefing_paper.pdf

2. UN Information Officer, 1/9/10, UN Press release, NGO/708, PI/1958. ‘Millennium Development Imperative, but largely off-track for Poorest’, retrieved 19/9/10 from: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2010/ngo708.doc.htm

3.Five By Fifteen. Viewed on the World Wide Web on the 20/10/10, fivebyfifteen.org/#/overview/

4. Creative Spirits, Viewed on the World Wide Web on the 13/1/2010: creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/health/aboriginal-life-expectancy.html.

5. Action for Global Health. Viewed on the World Wide Web on the 20/10/10:
actionforglobalhealth.eu/index.php?id=180&cHash=2c47176e3d0af65f9a0931dd290fd125&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=354

6. World Health Organization. Viewed on the world wide web on the 30/10/10 : who.int/medicines/publications/traditionalpolicy/en/index.html

 

Natasja is a registered Traditional Chinese Herbalist and Acupuncturist. She completed her training in Melbourne - Australia, then trained at Shen Yang Hospital - China, and has worked with hundreds of patients around India. She works from Discover Chinese Medicine in Richmond - Melbourne. She is the Secretary and co-founder of Traditional Healthcare. You can contact her at nsproat@th.org.au. Traditional Healthcare is a collaborative partner with One Health Organization, which is the only registered associate of the UN/DPI with a holistic and integrative health focus, who emphasis’s sustainable and community driven initiatives in consultation with multi disciplinary health care professionals in the field of humanitarian aid work.www.th.org.au

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