Title : Homeopathy workforce survey in Australia – A 5 year exploration
Abstract:
The Homeopathy Workforce Survey (HWFS) based in Australia has been undertaken for two consecutive years as part of a five year project. The survey aims to understand the homeopathic workforce, including all practitioners who practice homeopathy as well as those that state they are homeopaths and are studying to be homeopaths. In Australia homeopaths are typically female (88 – 91% of respondents) and over the age of 50 (68 – 78% of respondents). The initial survey was undertaken within a known homeopathic population, producing baseline demographics and exploring the practitioners’ nature of practice. The particular question "What professional title do you call yourself?" resulted in a variety of answers from participants. In the first year 61% of respondents called themselves a version of the title ‘Homeopath’, while this dropped to 42% in the second year. Does this indicate that homeopathy is already considered an integrative medicine in complementary and biomedical models? How does this impact the integration of homeopathy into the public biomedical model in Australia when the title of Homeopath is not defined or legally protected here? This research highlights the need for all complementary and traditional medicines to establish a consistent identity to aid integration into biomedical or complementary models.
