Osteopathy WHO cares about education

Standards for the education of osteopaths

As the Federal Association of Osteopathy e.V. (bvo) hurry, the World Health Organization WHO has set the international standards for the training of osteopaths. The bvo announces that in the effort of the WHO he sees a big step towards becoming an independent health professional osteopath in Germany.

One of the aims of WHO's formulations is to provide a legal basis for the practice of osteopathy. you will be Benchmarks in Training in Osteopathy called. The whole thing happened as part of a series of seven parts that were published for training in complementary medicine. The purpose of WHO is to ensure that training in osteopathy provides a minimum standard of relevant specialist knowledge. In addition, certain skills and exact knowledge of contraindications and, of course, indications. This is to ensure that all osteopaths can work with patients in primary contact.

Osteopathy is thus defined by the World Health Organization as an independent form of medicine that includes both diagnosis and treatment and can be distinguished from other health care professions, which also use manual techniques such as physiotherapy or chiropractic. As early as 2003, WHO's resolution WHA 56.31 called on member states to integrate complementary medicine, including osteopathy, into national health systems. The key points now published will serve as a basis for health authorities to regulate the education, testing and approval of qualified osteopaths by law.

The bvo, Bundesverband Osteopathie e.V., welcomes the publication of the WHO and sees it as an important model for an independent health profession in Germany: „The WHO describes the osteopath as a separate profession working with patients in primary contact,“ emphasizes med. Bernhard Hartwig, first chairman of the bvo, „this corresponds exactly to our professional policy goal.“

Hartwig explains: „In Germany, there is not yet the independent profession of osteopath and those who are not doctors or non-medical practitioners in their basic profession may not work osteopathically in primary contact with patients. Here, osteopathy is an independent form of medicine and neither a specialist training nor an additional form of treatment for the practitioner practice. It is time that in Germany the training to become an osteopath is regulated by law in the interest of the patient and the osteopath is legally recognized as an independent profession. The key points published by WHO provide a good template for this.“ In Germany, training as an osteopath takes place as a full-time education or extra occupationally at private osteopathy schools. The content and duration of training exceed the minimum standards required by the WHO. (pm, 07.12.2010)