The NRR Project is a joint initiative of the Australian Naturopathic Council (ANC) of which the NHAA is a proud member. The ANC has initiated this project to research the risks, the benefits and the regulatory requirements for the naturopathy profession, including herbal medicine. The research will inform the preparation of a submission from ANC member organisations to State, Territory and Commonwealth Governments to seek national registration of naturopaths under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for the health professions (NRAS).
We are so grateful for the hard work of everyone involved, including our President David Casteleijn, Director Jenny Care, and our passionate members Sophia Gerontakos, Amie Steel.
The NHAA is proud to work alongside such passionate researchers, associations and industry groups. Our profession is stronger when we work together with a common goal.
Latest Update: October 2021
NRR Steering Committee has been meeting at least monthly since August 2020 and are pleased to share a brief update on the progress of the project.
In the past 6 months the NRR team has been working hard, collecting data and writing chapter reports for the project.
Ethics approval has been granted for surveys. These surveys will question associations, and education providers to get their feedback and thoughts on the naturopathic profession.
A focus group was run in August in which the NHAA were invited to participate alongside other associations. The topic of the focus group was to discuss the challenges, opportunities and threats faced by the naturopathy and Western herbal medicine professions. The focus group was attended by representatives from ARONAH, ATMS, CMA and NHAA, and was chaired by an independent facilitator.
The 11 chapters of the report are all progressing at varying rates. Some are finished, others are in full draft stage and others are gathering important research data.
- The Professional Associations and Education providers have been surveyed for their various chapters. Some very thorough data has been collected from them which we are looking forward to analysing and writing up.
- The Benefits of Naturopathy chapter is worth highlighting. It will be a summary of four main pieces of work: the Lin report, the NHMRC review into Private Health Insurance, Stephen Myer’s paper on “The state of evidence for whole-system multi-modality naturopathic medicine”, and World Naturopathic Federation health technology assessment (as yet unpublished).
We are progressing well with this project despite various states in and out of lockdowns, and all that comes with the juggle of this situation. We look forward to updating you all again soon.