PDF Summary: Comparison of Medical-Model and Holistic, Traditional, Energy/Spiritual Mental Healthcare
Efficacy and risk/harm of conventional vs. alternatives
(a) Physicians are more than twice as likely as the general population to commit suicide and psychiatrists commit suicide at twice the rate of general physicians.
(b) 1 in 4 psychologists consider suicide at least once and 1 in 16 have attempted at least one time to kill themselves.
(c) The biggest names in psychotherapy, including Freud and Jung suffered unresolved serious mental issues, addictions and committed suicide and are still today defining ‘normal’ for the rest of society.
(d) Of the physicians who committed suicide, 42% had been seeing a conventional mental health professional at the time of death, highlighting the fact that removing safe, effective, dignified, empathic holistic therapies from the pallet of health care choices for the troubled client is seriously unwise and unjust.
(e) The rates of addictions, depression, divorce and substance abuse are higher for conventional health care professions then the general population.
(f) A woman is statistically at greater risk of being raped while on a psychiatrist’s couch than while jogging alone at night through a city park.
(g) In a British study of therapist-patient sexual contact among psychologists, 25 percent reported having treated a patient who had been sexually involved with another therapist.
(h) A 2001 study reported that one out of twenty clients who had been sexually abused by their therapist was a minor, the average age being 7 for girls and 12 for boys. The youngest child was three.
(Sources: (a) Medscape: Physicians are not Invincible: Rates of Psychosocial Problems Among Physicians: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/410643_2 and (b) (b) Psychology Today: Why Shrinks Have Problems http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200909/why-shrinks-have-problems (c) CCHR International http://www.cchr.org/cchr-reports/psychiatric-rape/introduction.html where a Guide is available FREE.
(f) There is no history of harm done by any alternative treatment. (Source: Health Care Policy Studies, Sept 2009 ‘Unnatural Regulation: Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy in Canada’ by Cynthia Ramsay, Fraser Institute).
(g) Iatrogenic illness is the 3rd leading cause of death in America. Iatrogenic illness is any harm, intentional and unintentional, caused by conventional medical treatment.
The overall incidence rate of adverse events of 7.5% in one study suggests that, of the almost 2.5 million annual hospital admissions in Canada similar to the type studied, about 185,000 are associated with an adverse event and close to 70,000 of these are preventable. (Source:CMAJ. 2004 May 25;170(11):1678-86.The Canadian Adverse Events Study: the incidence of adverse events among hospital patients in Canada by Baker GR et al)
Prescription drugs used as prescribed are the fourth leading cause of death in Canada – leading to approximately ten thousand deaths a year and causing 100,000 serious injuries. Yet 70% of these deaths are preventable. (Source: Harper Government Launches Plain Language Labeling Initiative to Improve Drug Safety for Canadians, June 2013 Press Release, Minister of Health)
AMOUNT SPENT OUT-OF-POCKET IN ONTARIO ON ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
1. Amount of money spent each year in Ontario on non-conventional treatments
There are no statistics for the amount spent in Ontario on alternative health care treatments, only an estimate of the amount spent by Canadians. We can draw reasonable conclusions.
Nine years ago, in 2005 alone, more than 1.2 million adults aged 18 or over consulted an Ontario alternative health care provider, representing about 13% of the total population of Ontario at the time. (Source: Williams et al. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2011, 11:47 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/11/47 )
During the latter half of 2005 and first half of 2006, about the same time medical/pharmaceutical lobby groups started to position themselves to ‘regulate’ alternative and holistic practitioners, Canadians spent more than $5.6 billion out-of- pocket on visits to providers of alternative medicine, compared to nearly $2.8 billion in 1997. This represents a doubling of preference for alternative and complementary treatments in less than 10 years. In fact, more recent studies suggest that out-of-pocket expenditures on alternatives are doubling every decade.
An extrapolation for the Ontario population based on
(a) the high concentration of natural health services providers in Ontario (46% of the total in Canada by 2012) and
(b) 13% of the Ontario population using alternatives by 2005,
it is fair to presume that some $4-5 Billion out-of-pocket was spent on alternative treatments in 2005-6, in Ontario alone.
(c) Almost ½ of the natural health services and natural health providers were located in Ontario by 2005-2006, suggesting that at least $3-4 Billion or more of that amount of spending was and is found in Ontario. At the rate the expenditures were doubling, a decade later…2014-15, it can be expected that Ontario residents will spend close to $8-10 Billion on alternatives.
In 2006, alternative therapy providers were the major expenditure component, making up 72 % of average per capita expenditure. Books, classes, equipment, etc., was the next largest category at 13 %, with herbs and vitamins only slightly smaller at 12%. Expenditures on special diets were the smallest expenditure per capita at just 3 %.
(Source: Nadeem Esmail “Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Canada: Trends in Use and Public Attitudes, 1997-2006” Fraser Institute Public Policy Sources, Number 87 / May 2007 p. 32)
http://www.stoppsychotherapytakeover.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/FRASER-complementary-alternative-medicine-in-canada-2007.pdf
The average amount paid in Canada out-of-pocket per user to an alternative health care provider in 2005 was $173, which was a sizable increase from the $93 paid out of pocket on average in 1997. (Source: Nadeem Esmail “Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Canada: Trends in Use and Public Attitudes, 1997-2006” Fraser Institute Public Policy Sources, Number 87 / May 2007)
EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS FOR ONTARIO
Offices of All Other Health Practitioners (NAICS 62139) December 2012 – NAICS= North American Industry Classification
| Province or Territory | Employers | Non-Employers/ Indeterminate |
Total | % of Canada |
| Ontario | 2,618 | 4,534 | 7,152 | 46.5% |
Ontario’s share of all persons employed in the Natural Health (Other Health Practitioners) field is 46.5% or over 7,000 people. Most are small businesses with 1-4 employees (see next table).
| Province or Territory | Employment Size Category (Number of employees) |
||||
| Micro 1-4 |
Small 5-99 |
Medium 100-499 |
Large 500+ |
||
| Alberta | 401 | 138 | 1 | 0 | |
| British Columbia | 645 | 129 | 1 | 0 | |
| Manitoba | 142 | 40 | 0 | 0 | |
| New Brunswick | 98 | 16 | 1 | 0 | |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 52 | 12 | 2 | 0 | |
| Northwest Territories | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Nova Scotia | 82 | 13 | 0 | 0 | |
| Nunavut | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ontario | 1,988 | 617 | 10 | 3 | |
| Prince Edward Island | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Quebec | 819 | 212 | 1 | 0 | |
| Saskatchewan | 101 | 22 | 0 | 0 | |
| Yukon Territory | |||||
(Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Patterns Database, 2012)
Number of people, by gender and employment type, working in the natural healing industry in Ontario: NOC 2011 Code 3232 – Practitioner of Natural Healing
| NOC 2011 Code 3232 – Practitioner of Natural Healing | |||
Total Workers: 2,565 |
|||
| Employee | 630 (25%) | Self-employed | 1,935 (75%) |
| Male | 705 (27%) | Female | 1,860 (73%) |
(Source: 2011 National Household Survey. NOC= National Occupational Classification 2011. The self-employed include persons with or without a business, as well as unpaid family workers.)
Statistics for Religious workers in Ontario – NAICIS 81311 – December 2012
Number of establishments in Canada by type and region: December 2012
|
||||
| Province or Territory | Employers | Non-Employers/ Indeterminate |
Total | % of Canada |
| Alberta | 1,751 | 94 | 1,845 | 12.3% |
| British Columbia | 1,859 | 106 | 1,965 | 13.1% |
| Manitoba | 824 | 36 | 860 | 5.7% |
| New Brunswick | 569 | 10 | 579 | 3.9% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 249 | 7 | 256 | 1.7% |
| Northwest Territories | 18 | 0 | 18 | 0.1% |
| Nova Scotia | 619 | 9 | 628 | 4.2% |
| Nunavut | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0.0% |
| Ontario | 5,489 | 279 | 5,768 | 38.4% |
| Prince Edward Island | 117 | 3 | 120 | 0.8% |
| Quebec | 1,957 | 135 | 2,092 | 13.9% |
| Saskatchewan | 852 | 24 | 876 | 5.8% |
| Yukon Territory | 16 | 0 | 16 | 0.1% |
| CANADA | 14,323 | 703 | 15,026 | 100% |
| Percent Distribution | 95.3% | 4.7% | 100% | |
Number of employer establishments
|
|||||
| Province or Territory | Employment Size Category (Number of employees) |
||||
| Micro 1-4 |
Small 5-99 |
Medium 100-499 |
Large 500+ |
||
| Alberta | 1,239 | 508 | 4 | 0 | |
| British Columbia | 1,242 | 609 | 7 | 1 | |
| Manitoba | 580 | 239 | 5 | 0 | |
| New Brunswick | 452 | 113 | 4 | 0 | |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 138 | 109 | 2 | 0 | |
| Northwest Territories | 14 | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
| Nova Scotia | 507 | 109 | 3 | 0 | |
| Nunavut | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ontario | 3,924 | 1,519 | 40 | 6 | |
| Prince Edward Island | 93 | 23 | 1 | 0 | |
| Quebec | 1,158 | 775 | 24 | 0 | |
| Saskatchewan | 687 | 164 | 1 | 0 | |
| Yukon Territory | 10 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| CANADA | 10,046 | 4,179 | 91 | 7 | |
| Percent Distribution | 70.1% | 29.2% | 0.6% | 0.0% | |
In 2012, the breakdown of employer establishments in the Religious Organizations industry was as follows: 70.1% of them were considered micro, employing less than five employees. Small establishments accounted for 29.2% and medium-sized establishments accounted for an additional 0.6% of the total number of establishments. Large employers, those with more than five hundred persons on payroll, accounted for .8% of the total establishments in the Religious Organizations industry.
(Source: North American Industry Classification System Statistics (NAICS) Industry Canada website)
The vast majority of religious/spiritual workers are located in Ontario with 5,443 being employed in micro and small religious/spiritual practices.
NUMBER OF PEOPLE SEEKING ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS
Percentage of Ontario people aged 12 or older reporting alternative health care consultations in 2003(Source: 2003 Canadian Community Health Survey)
Any Alternative Alternative care (except Chiropractic)
1,971,000 people 1,174,000 people
= 19.2% of population = 11.4% of population
(Source : Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Patterns Database, December 2012)
Women, more significantly then men, utilize alternative therapies, especially for chronic conditions and when then feel their needs are not met by conventional treatments.These results suggest that many women in Ontario feel that their health care needs are not being adequately met within the traditional medical system, particularly as related to the chronic conditions that affect women more than men. Thus when alternative treatments are restricted, the options for women are seriously diminished. This is particularly important when considering that women are far more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness and prescribed mind-altering drugs, then the male population. (Source: Williams et al. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2011, 11:47 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/11/47 and Breggin, P., Medication Madness)
USAGE STATISTICS ACROSS THE GLOBE
- The World Health Organization estimates that between 65 to 80 percent of the world’s population (over 4 billion people) rely on alternative medicine as their primary form of health care compared to only 10 to 30 percent of people who use conventional medicine.
- Traditional Chinese medicine has been chosen by the World Health Organization for worldwide propagation to meet the heath care needs of the twenty-first century.
- 19 percent of Fortune 500 companies offer alternative medicine as part of their health care compensation packages.
- One-half of all medical schools now offer courses in alternative medicine.
- More than 70% to 90% of physicians consider complementary and alternative medicine therapies, such as diet and exercise, behavioral medicine, counseling and psychotherapy, and hypnotherapy, to be legitimate medical practices.
- 2/3 of people who use complementary and alternative medicine do not tell their medical doctor.(Source: 10 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE, Vitality Link, Dec 18, 2012 by Drey)
International Comparison Ranks Canada 2nd to Last
A major 2014 International Comparison of Healthcare Systems was undeniably blunt about the catastrophe Canadians are subjected to needlessly.
As you can see from the summary chart on page 7 of this study, Canada ranks 10th out of 11 overall (only the United States scores worse), but dead last when it comes to timeliness of care. And we rank 4th last in terms of healthy lives. MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL: How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally.
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