Evidence-based recommendations to facilitate professional collaboration between allopathic and traditional health practitioners

Abstract

Background: Globally, and in South Africa, there is an increased demand for consulting both traditional and allopathic health practitioners. As both health practitioners are working within the same communities, their respective practices could complement or undermine the health of consumers using both health services. Professional collaboration between traditional and allopathic health practitioners is therefore desirable and requires collaboration between the systems, which is currently legislated by the Traditional Health Practitioners Act 22 of 2007. However, in the Eastern Cape, no evidence-based recommendations were found that facilitated the collaborative relationship between the two health practitioner groups.Purpose of the research: To develop evidence-based recommendations aimed at facilitating professional collaboration between allopathic and traditional health practitioners for the benefit of patients.Methodology: Descriptive evidence-based recommendations to enhance professional collaboration between both groups of health practitioners were developed based on focus group interviews with allopathic practitioners (n = 10) and individual interviews with traditional health practitioners (n = 18) (traditional health practitioners (n = 14) and traditional healers who are also allopathic health practitioners (n = 4)) practising in the Amathole District in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Dickoff et al.'s (1968) Survey List wasused as a conceptual framework.Results: Collaboration was hampered by allopathic practitioners demonstrating negative attitudes by not referring patients to traditional practitioners based on lack of knowledge and mutual understanding of each other's practices. Suggestions for collaboration made by both groups resulted in the development of two distinct sets of evidence-based recommendations.The first set of recommendations aims to enhance professional collaboration between both groups of health practitioners. This is done through facilitating mutual understanding based on respect and acceptance between the different practitioners. The second set of recommendations aims to enhance professional collaboration through facilitating open communication between different practitioners.Conclusion: These evidence-based recommendations can be used to facilitate professional collaboration between allopathic and traditional health practitioners resulting in mutual understanding and open communication, enhancing team work in a multi-professional environment, and ultimately leading to improved patient care.

La pratique de la médecine et pharmacopée traditionnelles au Niger: concilier le savoir ancestral aux exigences de la règlementation pharmaceutique

“…Pour la conduite de cette étude, nous avons recensé les travaux effectués autour de la MT tant au niveau mondial, que régional et communautaire. Ces travaux concernent des déclarations [9][10][11], des normes [12,13] et des stratégies [10,10,14,15] édictées afin d'orienter et appuyer les pays dans la dynamique de reconnaissance et d'intégration de la MT dans le système de soins conventionnels [7,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] ainsi que des travaux universitaires traitant de la thématique [3,15,[24][25][26][27][28]. Les efforts de certains pays s'étant inspirés de ces travaux ont également été exploités [10,29,30].…”

“…La collaboration peut aller du suivi des patients sous traitement traditionnel, a la formation des tradipraticiens, l'exercice de la MT au sein des hôpitaux conventionnels et un cadre de concertation entre les deux catégories de praticiens [25,48]. Au cours des deux dernières décennies, les deux systèmes de santé ont été de plus en plus utilisés lorsque les personnes passent d'un secteur d'un système de santé à un autre ou en utilisant les deux systèmes simultanément [23].…”

Evaluation of irregularly manufactured garrafadas and syrups seized in the state of Amapá, Brazil

“…The consumption of herbal medicines and phytotherapeutic products has been growing exponentially every year, and it is a therapeutic alternative used in parallel to traditional drug therapy [1]. In the northern region of Brazil, the consumption of medicinal plants is widespread: the difficulty of access to regular treatments, the folk medicine use, and its efficacy attract the interest of the population, as well as of the pharmaceutical industry [2].…”

The relationship between Indigenous and allopathic health practitioners in Africa and its implications for collaboration: a qualitative synthesis

“…In practice, many barriers exist to effective collaboration, including the co-option of IHPs for allopathic duties rather than working together as equals, negative perceptions of IHPs by AHPs [ 27 ], and community perceptions that Indigenous healthcare is a second-best option to over-subscribed allopathic services [ 9 ]. As such, few successful formal collaborations exist between AHPs and IHPs in Africa [ 55 ] with the exception of HIV/AIDs services [ 5 ] and traditional birth attendants who have been absorbed into the formal health system in most countries [ 53 ] Systemic factors such as lack of government policies [ 56 ], lack of funding [ 57 ], medicolegal issues [ 58 ] and human resource issues [ 59 ] have been suggested as contributors to lack of successful collaboration.…”