Practitioner voices were on the agenda. While you may have weekly meetings in a physical space, NHPPA connects virtually. We span a few cities and provinces. This recording was captured during one of our recent weekly Friday team calls. Shawn shared his frustration over the silence of many natural health professionals, who work in clinical practice, about the impending Self-Care Framework. A scheme which aims to group natural health products under the same set of regulations as non-prescription chemical drugs. In short, his message is that if natural health products are grouped as slated, then in fact, you cannot have a self-care product that claims to treat even a moderate condition. Natural health products will become illegal to use for “anything more serious than athlete’s foot”. He continues, “Health Canada is clear we are going to be further restricted in our claims. If it’s a type of condition for which you would seek the advice of a practitioner licensed by a province… then it’s not a self-care product. Practitioners are totally asleep because nobody is saying anything. I haven’t heard a single homeopathic doctor, naturopath, herbalist, nutritionist, [or] any association sounding the alarm – when I think this is the biggest threat they’ve ever faced to their ability to practice.”
