OKinHealth- Quality Standards

To create a website providing information relevant to integrated and complementary healing practitioners and the general public in the Okanagan Valley, the Kootenays, Vancouver area, across BC, Alberta, and Canada. The information would include that relating to practitioner development and practice development, including:

All quality* health & healing workshops, courses, and events related to our physcial, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.
Condensed educational articles on natural health, environment, maternity, family and animal issues.
Practitioner development and practice development
Practitioner services available in your area with contact info.
Natural products and Businesses available in your area
Newsletter and free Contests
See What is integrated and complementary medicine?

Provide a common information source for healing practitioners and public.
Make available lists of course information and healers in practice.
Enhance and ease communication between healing practitioners.
Attract advertising of natural products to inform practitioners and public of these.
Apply basic quality controls to posted information.*
Modify and enhance the information regularly to keep updated and adjust to needs arising.

All articles will be reviewed by one of several editors.
All products must have both complete ingredients and consumer feedback available.
All practitioners and course presenters are required to include a mini-bio containing - level of training, approximate contact hours Schooling/ institutions attended Governing body(s). If requested, Ok in Health will send an e-mail with regarding the mini-bio.

Ok in Health Statement regarding website information and quality.
We are all aware that basic standards in some areas of complementary medicine are not clearly in place, putting the responsibility for quality monitoring right where it belongs - with you. OKinHealth will make reasonable effort to request and post basic information related to quality of workshops, events and practitioners. There is no guarantee that this is accurate and honest. OKinHealth.com disclaims any responsibility for all information, posting it in good faith.

It is your right and responsibility to question qualifications, and follow this up thoroughly. You owe it to yourself not to be deterred by other pressures. This is your money, your education, your healing, your life.

Similarly all practitioners know this, and any worth their salt will display their qualifications proudly and openly, will welcome questions about courses and experience; and will have qualifications to display. (framed certificates, course lists with dates & contact hours, an album containing certs. and proofs and detailed bio material, letters after name on business card).

This is not to say there are not natural healers out there, but these persons too know the value of certifications and courses to give foundation and enhancement to their gifts, to add necessary knowledge of counseling skills and professional ethics at least*

1. Certificates give credence that your choice of healers actually has training in what they practice. So the level of training and/or contact hours tell a tale.

Often certificates entail 10 modules of 40 hours each plus 100 required practical hours, approximately. They vary widely, but all necessitate lots of training provided by a qualified instructor, supervised practice hours, strong resource orientation, caregiver ethics, extensive other-student sharing. Thus a trained certified practitioner of any form of health care has the basics to add parttime training to this foundation. That is, there is a difference between a nurse with a week of healer training, and someone with just the week of healer training. Look for and ask about those letters after your choice`s name.

2. Training Schools tell another tale. Any certificate from a known licensed college has more surety. Many privately set-up schools are wonderful. Unfortunately some just seem fine and may not contain all the elements of the licensed colleges and you the consumer can`t tell because they`ll act like experts.

3. Governing Body is the term used for provincial and national associations, such as the BC Association of Massage Practitioners or Canadian Healing Touch Association. These governing bodies require practitioners in their field to be members, and to have basic training at an approved school to become a member, and approve courses often for continuing upgrading. These GBs work with known training schools to ensure uniform standards of training among them, and standards of practice, and standards of required continuing upgrading. Thus a registered healer has this surety, and puts the initials of this GB after their name on business cards.

Also Experience is important, after training is completed. Any practitioner learns as much in the first 2-3 years of practice as in training, and the quality of this post-qualification learning is steered and enhanced and properly limited by the prior training. That`s why newly qualified practitioners usually choose to work with experienced practitioners, or join a practitioners' group to enhance the exchange fostering this learning. However, experience has been known to be exaggerated: 5 years stated may be 5 years of 1 day a week. So ask, and note when your practitioner/presenter refers to an exchange group or special opportunity taken.