As health professionals in your community, we would like to introduce ourselves. We are members of OsteopathyBC (OBC), a not-for-profit, voluntary, professional association of osteopathic practitioners, working to maintain and promote the highest standard of osteopathic healthcare in British Columbia. We represent the interests of osteopathic practitioners, osteopathy as a profession, and the consumers’ rights to access osteopathic services. We have been raising awareness and promoting osteopathy in BC since 2005, working on national standards with the Canadian Federation of Osteopaths and liaising with the international community as a member of the Osteopathic International Alliance. Now that osteopathy is becoming better known, many multidisciplinary clinics are offering osteopathic treatments in their clinics.
We would like to provide you with some information to clear up any confusion regarding the qualifications of osteopathic practitioners. The World Health Organization (WHO) published Benchmarks for Training in Osteopathy in 2010. This document specifies two types of training: Type I full time training which must be a minimum of 4200 hours with 1000 hours of supervised clinical practice, and Type II training, which is part time training, specifically for those with prior healthcare qualifications. This training must include supervised clinical training and practice, and all osteopathic skills and physical examination training must be taught through direct contact ie. not online.
As osteopathy and osteopathic training is not yet regulated in BC, it can be difficult for the public, and clinic owners and managers to be sure that a practitioner meets the WHO benchmarks. OsteopathyBC is the only BC (non-physician) osteopathic association whose members have all graduated with a minimum of 4 years education full time or minimum 4 years part-time for those who are already health professionals. Our goal, therefore, is to keep our standards consistent with WHO benchmarks and with countries where osteopathy is already regulated. Also, most of the major insurance companies recognize the high standard of education of our members when covering the cost of osteopathic treatments.
Again, although osteopathy is not yet a regulated health profession in BC, we would like you to know that if the person is a member of OsteopathyBC, http://www.osteopathybc.ca, you can be assured of the quality of their education. Furthermore, to protect the public and the reputation of your clinic, we encourage you to work only with osteopathic practitioners who are fully and properly trained.
If you would like further information on this issue, please contact the OBC secretary at info@osteopathybc.ca.
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