President ’ s Report
Peter Berryman | ATMS President
Welcome to the Lunar New Year of the Rabbit . You will be pleased to know that since the New Year the ATMS Board has become reinvigorated by innovations , such as new member services that we are planning to implement for the benefit of ATMS members in the near future . We have already had two meetings of a new Innovations Working Group to brainstorm some excellent ideas to take to our July 2023 annual Strategic Planning Day . This will be held in Brisbane this year alongside our first Board Meeting outside Sydney in many years , an acknowledgement that four current ATMS Directors are Queensland residents . This is the day when we will review our existing three-year Strategic Plan , check that we are up to date and plan to roll out the member services that are on the table . For example , our annual Natural Medicine Week ( NMW ) is coming up , from 22-28 May 2023 : an awesome online extravaganza for all our modalities !
Much effort has already gone into making this year ’ s event an even better NMW than anything that we have ever held before , bringing natural medicine - and ATMS-accredited practitioners - even closer to the attention of the Australian public . Also coming up is your annual financial renewal as an ATMS member , due before 01 July 2023 , which includes your compliance with achieving at least 20 points of Continuing Professional Education ( CPE ) in your modality , in the last twelve months . Special consideration regarding CPE compliance has been made in recent years owing to the impact of the pandemic . However you are now strongly encouraged to maintain your currency with CPE , as is required of all professions . A new CPE audit procedure will be implemented later this year to enable ATMS to be legally in compliance with our business contracts with the private health insurance providers who still offer rebates to the clients of many of our members . The review of the research evidence that we have submitted to support the rightful return of rebates to all natural medicine modalities continues . This campaign is supported not only by our own natural medicine profession , but also by Private Healthcare Australia ( PHA ), who are the Australian private health insurance industry peak representative body , and by the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia ( COSBOA ). In parallel with the Board ’ s work in this area , there have been ongoing stirrings in the profession about the potential need for and timing of the Statutory Registration for Naturopaths . Statutory Registration requires only that our modalities are deemed to be of sufficient danger to the Australian public to be registered . Currently unregistered modalities are those deemed not dangerous enough to require registration . Criteria for whether currently unregistered modalities are of sufficient danger to their clients have not yet been established .
I highly recommend that you read on our website the latest May 2021 version of the ATMS Position Statement on Statutory Government Registration , as this is a highly contentious topic . Reading this Position Statement for yourself will enable you to accurately quote the ATMS position . Please try to appreciate the neutral position taken by ATMS to be able to see the advantages of both preserving the natural medicine professions ’ voluntary self-regulation within current government regulation , and of Statutory Government Registration . Some other issues that the Board has been considering include what our professions ’ position might be on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament , and an upcoming referendum to have this written into the
Australian Constitution . In the interim , the Board is discussing appropriate ways to offer more support within Australian indigenous communities . The Board has also considered the potential impact of Woolworths ’ free online 15-minute naturopathic consultations through their Healthy Life platform . This may be a commercial strategy for the manufacturing companies to increase their sales through yet another retail outlet . Coles considered doing something similar years ago . On the positive side , there could be health benefits and potentially more jobs for naturopaths and better informed product selection by the public , even making available Practitioner Only products that can be sold anywhere if they are not listed on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods ( ARTG ). This illustrates the dilemma of the safeguards and accountability also needed , to ensure that the people using these health services are truly viewed as patients , rather than just as sources of profit . Our ATMS membership of COSBOA may have encouraged other natural medicine associations also to see the benefit of supporting the special interests of practitioners as small businesses : we joined with our Massage and Myotherapy Australia ( MMA ) colleagues at the recent Melbourne COSBOA twoday Summit , and an ATMS representative has been invited to attend the MMA 20th anniversary conference in Auckland in May 2023 . A summary of all the COSBOA Summit presentations was provided for you in a hyperlink in your 18 April 2023 Wise-n-Well monthly member ’ s email - well worth a read when you are working on your business , rather than in your business .
Always in your service …
Peter Berryman President
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