ACCAHC: Historic, Multi-Disciplinary CAM Educator Project Announces Grant, Exec Change, Dues-Basis and Move to Independence
Summary: In early 2004, a new entity emerged on the integrated healthcare scene, the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC). In the ensuing three years under the direction of Pamela Snider, ND, ACCAHC has made significant strides in the areas of education, research and policy as an action-oriented multi-disciplinary project. Born and nurtured as part of the 501c4 Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC), ACCAHC is now taking steps toward its independence as a stand-alone, dues-based and grant-supported 501c3 entity. This article notes ACCAHC accomplishments, an executive director transition and plans for a $30,000 grant from the organization's founding backer, Lucy Gonda.
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From ACCAHC, January 2007. Reed Phillips, DC, PhD, the chair of the
Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC) is
effusive in his praise of the work of ACCAHC’s founding executive
director, Pamela Snider, ND. Snider will step
down from her position after three years, but stay on ACCAHC’s executive
committee.
Reed Phillips, DC, PhD, ACCAHC's founding chair
Says Phillips: “Pamela built a multi-disciplinary team and a
safe, disciplined, respectful, and exciting context for us to collaborate.
Thanks to her patient efforts, for the first time in history, organizations
representing all of the leading complementary health care professions have
chosen to pay dues to an organization – ACCAHC – which will allow us to
collaborate with each other and with conventional educators in advancing our
missions. That Pamela has pulled this off says a lot about what she has
accomplished.”
Sample ACCAHC Action under Snider’s Direction 2004-2006
Collaboration
Organized CAM educators
from the chiropractic, naturopathic medicine, acupuncture and oriental medicine, massage therapy and direct-entry (homebirth) midwifery fields and emerging professions for their participation in the National Education Dialogue (NED).
Successfully secured grants, with NED,
from the ArKay Foundation and the George Family Foundation to develop resources
which will support educators in multi-disciplinary and inter-institutional
collaboration.
Participated with NED in a survey of
conventional and CAM educators on the extent of
inter-institutional relationships
Asked by CAHCIM
to serve on steering committee for a 2008 North American research conference.
Policy
Joined forces with the Coalition for
Patients Rights to oppose the efforts of the American Medical Association to
restrict the scopes of practices of other professions.
Supported efforts of the Council on
Naturopathic Medical Education to maintain its recognition with the US Department of Education.
__________________________
Snider will be succeeded as interim director by her close
collaborator in the founding of both the National Education Dialogue (NED) and of ACCAHC, John
Weeks. Weeks, publisher-editor of the Integrator Blog News & Reports, served as NED’s founding director.
ACCAHC Core Participation
Pamela Snider, ND, honored for her work as ACCAHC's founding executive director
ACCAHC’s core participation was through
representatives of the councils of colleges and accrediting agencies of the
five disciplines with federally-recognized accrediting agencies. These are
chiropractic medicine, massage therapy, acupuncture and Oriental medicine,
naturopathic medicine and direct-entry midwifery. ACCAHC has also maintained a
category of membership for traditional world medicines and emerging professions, such as
Yoga therapy and Ayurvedic medicine.
Snider, who plans to remain on the ACCAHC executive team,
reflects on the work: “Many of us have noted our shared issues and a
common vision for transforming health care and for health creation as educators and
professionals for years – especially in the context of the wider move toward
integrating care. As our relationships in ACCAHC deepened and our agenda
clarified, we began to realize that what we were creating was not a
time-limited project but an organization which could be a uniquely
effective part of the health care and educational landscape for years to
come.”
In July of 2006, ACCAHC’s participants formally decided to
begin a transition out from IHPC and become a self-sustaining, dues-based
organization. Says Phillips: "We have benefited throughout from IHPC's self-definition which has comfortably allowed a project to be born within IHPC but then spread its wings and sets down roots as an independent organization. It's a remarkable relationship."
Dues Structure and Current Committed Members
ACCAHC developed as an IHPC project
A dues structure was established with a suggested level of
$1000-$5000 per year based on the size of an organization. ACCAHC also
clarified additional membership features: certifying agencies of recognized
professions would be invited as core members; mechanisms were clarified through
which traditional world and emerging professions would be represented; and a
single college membership category ($250).
Membership solicitation began in 2006. Decision are linked
to meeting dates and budget cycles of potential members. The following
organization have committed to becoming dues-paying members as of January 2007:
American Massage Therapy Association – Council
of Schools
Association of Chiropractic College
Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and
Oriental Medicine
Council on Naturopathic Medical Education
International Association of Yoga Therapists
Midwifery Education Accreditation Commission
National Certification Commission on
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
Four individual programs – 2 AOM,
1 DC, 1 ND
Gonda Donation to Facilitate 2007 Retreat, “Hot Spots”, Independence
ACCAHC chair Phillips notes that ACCAHC’s move toward
becoming an independent 501c3 charitable organization is based on a business
model for ACCAHC that is part dues and part grants. Says Phillips: “We know
that the robust agenda developed by our member educators cannot be managed
based on dues payments. We will seek focused grants and the assistance of some
visionary philanthropists who can see how collaboration between educators of
these disciplines can advance healthcare."
ACCAHC received good news on this front in late December
when the organization’s founding donor, Lucy Gonda,
chose to make a $30,000 grant to support’s ACCAHC’s work. Gonda says her
donation honors the decisions of ACCAHC organizations to begin paying
membership dues, and the hard work of the ACCAHC executive team under Snider’s
direction.
The Gonda funds are
expected to support four ACCAHC initiatives. One is a member retreat. Second is
the costs associated with the move to independence. A third is a booklet
resource presently underway on the disciplines. The fourth is a retreat in
which a small, multi-disciplinary group will begin, in an organized way, to
explore new ways to approach some of the “hot spots” where the ACCAHC member
disciplines have sometimes been in conflict.
Transition to Independence
and New Executive Director
David O'Bryon, part of IHPC team which created ACCAHC
Snider’s decision to leave was prompted by her need to work
full-time on a core project for her profession for which she serves as
organizer and executive editor, the Foundations of Naturopathic Medicine
Project, whose academic home is the National College of Natural Medicine,
Portland Oregon. The international collaborative project involves 170
contributors from 6 countries and 9 colleges, and includes a series of
symposia, conferences and working groups leading to an in-depth textbook to be published by Elsevier on the
foundations, the philosophy and their clinical application for naturopathic
medicine. (See interview here.)
Snider, who co-led the naturopathic medical profession’s
effort to create its definition and principles twenty years ago, co-conceived
the project after she a contracted to write a book on her
profession: “We believe this project can have a significant and positive
influence on the future of naturopathic medicine. Much as I love working
collaboratively with other disciplines, this must be the focus of my work now.”
She adds that she looks forward to continuing to support ACCAHC as a volunteer
with the executive committee.
Sheila Quinn, IHPC board chair had key role in ACCAHC's birth
Weeks, who is serving ACCAHC in an interim
capacity, is a long-time national leader of collaborative efforts in the
integrated care arena. He has worked closely with Snider on ACCAHC’s
development since the beginning and is also fund-raised the initial support for the IHPC on whose steering committee he sits. Phillips, ACCAHC’s chair, notes that “the whole ACCAHC group feels lucky to
have John step in” during this transition.
Phillips makes a special point of noting how indebted ACCAHC
is to IHPC for “laboring and giving birth to us.” He particularly credits the
work of Janet Kahn, PhD, IHPC executive director, Sheila
Quinn, IHPC’s board chair and David O'Bryon, JD, IHPC's chair for its Education Task Force. Phillips states that ACCAHC
anticipates continuing to work closely with IHPC through the transition
process, and after independence “to move policy changes that will create better
health for the people we serve through advancing integrated healthcare.”
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