Complementary Therapies in Health Practice

Complementary therapies in
Health Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Section 1 – Creating Awareness .....................................................................................................1
a) Relevance of personal skills of healthcare practitioners in providing complementary
therapies..................................................................................................................................1
b) Effectiveness of current policy and practice required to regulate complementary therapies
in healthcare............................................................................................................................3
Section 2 – Practice Requirements to provide Complementary Therapy........................................3
a) Impact of current legislative and policy environment on use of complementary therapists in
healthcare practices................................................................................................................3
Section 3 – Effectiveness of complementary therapies usage.........................................................6
a) Effectiveness of complementary therapies and orthodox treatments, with differentiation 6
Section 4 – Significance of complementary therapies in maintaining health and well-being.........8
a) Role of complementary therapies in maintaining physiological and physiological health 8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
.......................................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Complementary therapies are considered as traditional approaches of treatment, where
herbal or natural extracted medicines, are provided to patients, for their holistic development.
The main purpose of offering this type of services within healthcare centres, is to identify the
root cause of health issue and treated accordingly, to heal the same (Nester and et. al., 2017).
Within present project, to create awareness regarding with usage and practices of complementary
therapies, relevance of professional skills and policies to regulate it within healthcare settings are
demonstrated. Along with this, legislations which are made in UK to provide such therapies are
also being critically discussed, with requirements of professional practices for the same.
Furthermore, key points that highlight in this project is significance of complementary therapies
in terms of psychological and physiological well-being.
Section 1 – Creating Awareness
a) Relevance of personal skills of healthcare practitioners in providing complementary therapies
Complementary therapies are also known as holistic therapies, which are mainly provided
to promote well-being and maintain good health of a person (Nankervis and et. al., 2017). This
would improve and increase quality of life as well as manage self-healing, by taking into
consideration the main aspects. It includes past and present life situation, emotional and physical
state of patients, including ways of living etc. which helps in identifying root cause behind
symptoms of health issue. Through this process, medical practitioners gain advantage to combine
both orthodox and complementary medicines for completely well-being of patients (Watson,
2019). In this regard, some of the complementary therapies which can be integrated in healthcare
practices are given as beneath –
Complementary Therapies: Chiropractic Treatment – This therapy is mainly concerned with diagnosing and treating
the mechanical disorders of patient's musculoskeletal system. It helps in reducing chronic
back and neck pain without any usage of surgery or medicines, by treating ailments. Occupational Therapy – Patient who are suffering from sensory, physical and any
cognitive problems are treated by using occupational therapy (Churcher Clarke and et.
al., 2017). This would help in developing motor skills and positive attitude in people, that
makes them able to control on anger and any frustration.
1

 Osteopathy – This therapy emphasizes on physical manipulation of bones and tissue to
treat musculoskeletal issues and back pain. It helps in recovery of patient health after the
knee or hip operations also, by manipulating as well as strengthening the musculoskeletal
framework.
 Physiotherapy – It helps in improving quality of life, by giving treatment of injury,
deformity, disability and more, via exercise, hands-on techniques and various modalities.
It plays the main role in recovery of patient health after stroke (Edgar and et. al., 2018).
Principles of Complementary Therapies
As per holistic philosophy, principle of complementary therapies is based on three main
aspects, that are – Mind, Body and Spirit, that helps in promoting well-being of a patient. Under
the complementary therapies, the most underlying aspect or principle is that body of patient will
heal itself, it proper maintenance is provided (Macdonald and Johnson, 2017). For this purpose,
therapists encourage people to take nutritious diet, do exercise, get fresh air and sunshine, etc.
these holistic approaches help in stimulating powers of recuperation within human body.
Therefore, this kind of self-healing treatment has no harmful side-effects.
Purpose and historical context of complementary therapies
The main purpose behind integrating complementary therapies into health practices, is to
promote and improve overall health of people, by strengthening and manipulating their
musculoskeletal framework (Zollman and et. al., 2017). In UK, healthcare organisations are
limited to provide osteopathy and chiropractic therapies. Here, Osteopathic technique include
gentle pressure, stretching and more, for providing overall good health and well-being of
patients. This therapy is firstly founded by American physicians – Andrew Taylor Still in 19th
century, that claims that overall health problems associated with musculoskeletal system, can
only be resolved by harnessing the self-healing potential under patient (Cedar, White and Atwal,
2018). Similarly, chiropractic therapy also helps in treating mechanical disorders of
musculoskeletal system, which is founded by Daniel David in 1895 to cure diseases, by
manipulating spine.
Professional skills for complementary practices
For providing complementary therapies, it is essential for therapists to get certified course
under certain code of ethics, like Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), International Institute
for Complementary Therapists (IICT) and more. This would help health practitioners in
2