Congratulations, you've reached the end of the course. We hope that you feel inspired to learn more about integrative therapies and incorporate them into your life. In this video, Terry now will summarize the key points of the course and offer you a call to action going forward, both for your own health and well-being, and for that of your potential patients. Great, thank you Robin. To start us off I'd like to point out the definition of integrative health that we started with in week one. It is the practice that affirms the importance of the relationship between the practitioner and the patient, focuses on the whole person, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic and lifestyle approaches, healthcare professionals and disciplines to achieve optimal health and healing. It is a bit of a mouthful but it conveys the key elements of an integrative approach. In week one, we also explored how providers and patients should partner for the best integrative care with the provider committing to a patient-centered focus. In addition, we looked at some of the differences between biomedicine and more integrative approaches, both models have their advantages and their limitations. The beauty of integrative health and integrative approaches is that you can really take the best of both to decide what is most appropriate. Excellent point. In integrative approach expands all of our options. In week two we learn more about these options and the various categories of integrative therapies. These are mind-body therapies, biologically-based therapies, energy therapies, manipulative and body-based therapies, and whole systems. While we covered these categories on a broad level, we hope that the deeper dive material allowed you to explore some of these therapies in greater detail. In week three, we discussed evidence-based medicine which relies on one type of evidence, published scientific research. Evidence informed practice integrates the best available evidence from systemic research with individual clinical expertise and the patient's needs and preference. This keeps the patient at the center, recognizes the clinician expertise, and helps clinicians stay current on standardized, evidence-based protocols using near real-time data to make clinical decisions. Keep in mind that a great way to address some of the challenges of the amount of evidence, is to use pre-appraised literature that assesses the quality and summarizes the results from the research studies. We pointed out some quality sources to efficiently find the evidence. From week four we learned valuable information on how to safely implement integrative therapies using the safety checklist. While integrative therapies are generally lower risk than more invasive therapy such as prescription medications or surgery, there are cautions and contraindications with some. This is especially true for herbal medicines and dietary supplements, while it's important to look for the potential interactions as well as the quality and purity of the supplements. I think safety is just the beginning when considering bringing integrative therapies and approaches into our practice and organization. We also have to look at regulatory issues which of course differ from county, state, province, and even some health care organizations. There are also considerations about the scope of practice for different categories of practitioners, as well as the need to establish policies and procedures that will help ensure the safety of the patient and standardize practice. While every organization is different, each one will have its own set of potential barriers and challenges to implementing integrative approaches and practices. We hope that you found the tools and exercises in week five helpful in assessing your location and finding ways to overcome these barriers. We hope that you enjoyed the peer review project and the ability to apply the knowledge you gained from this course. Do keep the organizational assessment you created as you may use it in the future. Thank you for sharing your personal statements. These help us understand what you enjoyed and found useful in the course that we can make adjustments for future courses. We want to thank you for spending time with us to learn more about integrative therapies and approaches. As this field continues to grow, we need to consider how we can provide truly patient-centered care by using evidence informed practice to better meet the needs of each individual patient. I truly appreciate your time and dedication to this course. Moving forward and the use of the integrative therapies continues to grow, it'll be imperative to show the effectiveness of these therapies to encourage full use of the variety of approaches for personalized, person-centered care of, in partnership with individuals and families. We hope that you'll be a part of that effort. To learn more specific skills and integrative therapies, check out the other courses in this integrative health and medicine specialization, including herbal medicine, guided imagery, aromatherapy, and mindfulness in integrative health care.
