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The Homeopathic Action Alliance (HAA) in concert with the

Accreditation Commission for Homeopathic Education in North America (ACHENA)
is pleased to announce the following:

Background

Representatives from the member organizations of the Homeopathic Action Alliance, including individuals from the U.S. and Canada, attended a 2 day summit in October, 2010 to review and update the “2001 Standards and Competencies for the Professional Practice of Homeopathy in North America”.  The 2001 document is available at the following link: http://achena.org/Standards.htm.  The 2010 Summit offered a venue for stakeholders to comment on the document while facilitated by an objective third party. Recommendations were made regarding the revision of the document and editing was undertaken by several individuals in attendance at the summit.  The current document, “Standards for Homeopathic Education and Competencies for the Homeopathic Practitioners in North America, April 2013” represents the consensus of those present at the Summit.

Purpose of the Document

The “Standards for Homeopathic Education and Competencies for the Homeopathic Practitioners in North America, April 2013” is to be used as follows: (from page 5 of the document)

• As a guide to assist homeopathic educators in establishing what they teach

• As a guide to assist in accrediting educational programs, seminars, etc.

• As a guide to certifying bodies as to the competencies they expect practitioners to be able to demonstrate

• As a guide to members of the homeopathic profession as to the knowledge and competencies expected of them by their colleagues

• As a statement to the public and other interested parties of the status that homeopathy has as a profession

• As a statement to other professional organizations and homeopathy’s self-regulatory bodies of the standards and competencies by which the homeopathic profession is identified—within a spectrum of various ways in which homeopathy is practiced

Overview of Major Areas of Change from the 2001 document to the 2013 document:

Below is a brief summary of the major changes between the 2001 document and the 2013 draft under review.  As noted above, the “2001 Standards and Competencies for the Professional Practice of Homeopathy in North America” can be located at: http://achena.org/Standards.htm. 

Please Note: Comparing the Table of Contents for each document will help the reviewer identify major differences between the documents.    

• The title of the document was changed to more accurately reflect that competencies apply to practitioners and standards apply to educational programs.

• The Introduction was expanded from 2 pages to 9 pages and includes additional sub-sections titled, “The Process for Defining Standards and Competencies”, “Terminology Used in the Document” and “Designing an Educational Curriculum”.

• In the 2013 document, the section in the Introduction titled “Purposes of the Document” is more explicitly stated.

• A new section was added to the 2013 document titled “Homeopathy and Homeopathic Practice.”  This section provides more background information about homeopathy, additional material discussing standards and competencies and new material related to “Standards and Competencies in Health Sciences”.

• The 2001 document was organized as “Part 1: Homeopathic Standards and Competencies” and “Part 2 Medical Standards and Competencies” while the new document is expanded and organized as follows: “Part I: Homeopathic Education”, “Part II:  Personal and Professional Development”, “Part III –Clinical Training” and “Part IV – Electronic Learning and Distance Learning”.

• The current document provides more detail in virtually every sub-section of “Part 1 Homeopathic Education”.  Specific Competencies for Practitioners and Education Standards are spelled out separately in each subsection.

• 2010 Summit participants closely reviewed language in the section of the 2001 document titled “Part 2 Medical Standards and Competencies” and efforts were made to revise language to avoid potential negative implications for non-licensed practitioners.

• The 2001 document included a sub-section of Part 2 titled “Major Categories of Illness”.  This section identified urgent and routine conditions in 19 different categories of illnesses.  The 2013 document includes sections titled “The Intersection of Homeopathy, Allopathy and Complementary Medicine”, “Ethical and Professional Considerations” and an Appendix titled “Guidelines for Sign and Symptoms That May Suggest a Referral is Appropriate”.

• The 2013 document includes content related to personal development, practice management and business development.  These topics were not addressed in the 2001 document.

• The 2013 document provides more detailed guidance regarding Clinical Training.

• The 2013 document includes numerous appendices, many of which are related to topics that Summit Participants believed required more deliberation in the future.

Deliberation Process:

All comments will be received and logged by an individual neutral to these proceedings. This individual will log all comments onto a tracking form that will enable reviewers to quantify different types of comments and themes.  A review committee of individuals representing six different HAA member organizations (ACHENA, American Association of Homeopathic Pharmacists, Council for Homeopathic Certification, National Center for Homeopathy, North American Network of Homeopathic Educators and the North America Society of Homeopaths) will carefully consider all comments received before the end of the public comment period. The review committee will carefully deliberate on all comments and determine how to respond to the comments. 

Timeline for Implementation:  Upon final adoption of these changes, member organizations of the HAA, and the homeopathic community in general, should work towards implementing these updated standards and competencies beginning in September 2014.

DOWNLOAD
S&C for Public Posting April 2013 [2,000kb]
 

Completed Public Comment Period

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