Campaign Closed: Oct 1/13
Live Nutritionists’ Webinar with Shawn Buckley Post-Campaign Report
LIVE NUTRITIONISTS’ WEBINAR PRESENTATION
Since the wrap up of Step 1 of the Charter to 308 MPs Campaign, the NHPPA had been busy planning a very exciting event for a specific audience who are not only personally affected by Health Canada’s NHP regulations, but also professionally. This group of people was holistic nutritionists. Like many of the public and industry stakeholders we have as subscribers, this discipline of alternative health practitioners are seeking practice specific conversation that will affect their clinical practices.
Two Toronto based holistic nutritionists contacted the NHPPA asking if Shawn Buckley could do a talk for their organization, Nutritionists’ Networking Group. They were keen to hear Shawn speak about how the NHP regulations impact holistic nutritionists. They were also interested in being educated on the influence they have in protecting their professional scope of practice, personal rights, and ability to live a holistic lifestyle.
Unfortunately, having a speaker the caliber of Shawn at an event comes with considerable expense between time and travel. So an alternative idea was proposed that would not only be a fraction of the cost, but be able to reach a larger audience from coast to coast. This led to the development of a nation-wide webinar where Shawn would educate, engage and empower the professional rights of holistic nutritionists. During this webinar the audience would learn how to pushback against the authorities who are removing access to trusted NHPs they’ve used in their clinics with great success. This webinar was held on September 10, 2013 is entitled “Tomorrow’s Access to Supplements in Clinical Practice”.
To find out more about how the webinar started, and our process CLICK HERE
During this LIVE broadcast, Shawn provided insight into what Health Canada’s policies on NHPs really mean, and their future ramifications on holistic nutritionists ability to practice if things don’t change. He discussed the products we have lost, which products may be next, the broad issues at hand for all practitioners, and what we can do about it.
The benefit of speaking to such a specific audience is that Shawn was able to prepare a practitioner-specific presentation, and answer questions in a way that was targeted to the way this group practices. A holistic nutritionist’s primary concern is in the development of a correct diet, that will shift the bio-chemistry of an individual to attain health and vitality. Like many natural health professionals, nutritionists are deeply invested in NHPs, as are their clients who are reliant on the availability of supplementation as part of their protocols. This webinar was not only a way engender support from this group for the NHPPA, but to extend our reach through their far-reaching networks. Through their clinics, we also anticipated our work would be exposed to other holistic health modalities.
To find out more about the webinar CLICK HERE.
THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING A WEBINAR
It took a considerable amount of work to develop this format for Shawn to reach people around the country. We had to research and select the right webinar service to suit our needs, one that allowed people to participate live, as well as allowing us to record the event for future viewing. As you might imagine, we worked with an IT specialist to help with implementation of the webinar, and to set up a ticket payment system. We also had marketing support to help us reach as many holistic nutritionists as possible.
Now that we have laid the groundwork, we can leverage the same format with ease and efficiency for other groups of holistic health practitioners. For example, Naturopathic Doctors, TCM practitioners, Ayurvedic practitioners, Integrative Medical Doctors, Manufacturers, Retailers, Herbalists and more.
WEBINAR REGISTRATIONS
The cost of attending the live webinar was $25. It also qualified the attendee for 20 continuing education credit hours for reading the material, and attending the seminar through the profession’s educational standards bodies: CAHN-Pro, CANNP and IONC.
For full information on the Nutritionists Webinar registration process CLICK HERE
The CSNN (Canadian School of Natural Nutrition) Alumni association was pleased to subsidize 40% of the cost of this lecture as part of their membership in the association. Their members only paid $15 of the regular $25 price. On their behalf, the CSNN Alumni Association supported the NHPPA with the $10 balance for each member that registered. This maintained the integrity of the $25 ticket price for NHPPA for every registrant.
For full information on CSNN Alumni Webinar registration process CLICK HERE
PURCHASE A RECORDING OF THE WEBINAR
Due to anticipated demand, the webinar was recorded for those who couldn’t make the live event on September 10. Each recording is still being sold to nutritionists for $25, and all proceeds will aid in funding future NHPPA campaigns.
Highlights from Shawn Buckley’s live webinar to nutritionists:
“[The regulations] are not about health.”
“The regulations have led to get to absurdities. [A manufacturer] tried to get parsley that had been ground up and put in a capsule, and tried to get a license for it. They could not prove to Health Canada that parsley was safe. As funny as that sounds, you will not find a clinical study that says parsley is safe […] I hope you realize how ridiculous this is.”
“Health Canada and the Government of Canada have never done a risk analysis to see if natural health products carry enough of a risk that we should be deeming them unsafe, and deeming them ineffective. They don’t know, because they haven’t done a risk analysis, so our whole policy is based on assumption.”
COST: $25 Payable at the time of delivery, not prior to
HOW: To purchase a copy of the recording, please email us at info@nhppa.org
WEBINAR SPONSORS
To help the NHPPA cover the costs of such an event, we approached several schools and organizations across Canada that we thought would make appropriate sponsors. Each of these sponsors contributed to the event, and with eight of them involved, we had the bulk of the webinar costs covered: the hard costs of procuring and setting up the webinar; the creation and development of the website and all marketing materials; the promotion of the event; the fundraising time to launch the project, and all of the administration of registrants who attended on September 10.
The ticket sales for the webinar has helped to support the management of the Nutritionist’s Petition Challenge. We are hoping that this concentrated and timed petition challenge will move the Charter petition total to over 92,572 signatures, making it the 2nd largest federal petition in the last 15 years and the 3rd largest in Canadian History. The webinar sponsors believe in NHPPA’s work, and that change to Health Canada regulations is necessary to help protect our access to NHPs, as well as the ability of holistic nutritionists to work within their full scope of practice.
We are very grateful to our sponsors for their support:
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*Shawn was in the Toronto area in September, and agreed to an open forum-in person discussion as a guest speaker for the Nutritionists’ Networking Group. This was a special thanks for their extraordinary effort in supporting the development and promotion of this campaign, all on a volunteer basis. The NHPPA was pleased to be able to extend this exchange!
