The UK National Health Service and CAM - FREECAM

Although this blog considers the UK National Health Service, the issues are every bit as relevant to USA Healthcare. In fact as with so many things the US leads the way and we I hope will follow.
I read in today's newspaper  that in trying to make savings the financially stretched NHS is likely to cut "talking therapies" and other services to mentally ill patients by 5%. What folly! I suspect this will mean in the long run that more pills will have to be prescribed to deal with the depression and stress and anxiety.
Every month or so I go to a meeting of the Scientific and Medical Network. It is a wonderful network through which I have made many friends and learnt a great deal. And very often I have a serendipitous experience. Last week's meeting was no exception. I bumped into John Kapp, and how I wish I had met him years ago.
Because for many years I have been pondering about the costs pumped into health care for drugs and invasive procedures and have often wondered whether we should rather be concentrating on nurturing holistic well being, with yoga, meditation, tai chi, counselling, psychotherapy, and using reiki, chiropractic, and the many other complementary and alternative medical procedures available to treat our illnesses. I have written elsewhere and at some length on this, and on the need to bring soul back into medicine, rather than pursuing a policy of continual pill pushing, and am personally convinced that this has to be the future of the National Health Service. 

Because not only is the link between stress or anxiety and physical illnesses been well documented, such treatments are almost certainly safer and pretty much bound to be cheaper than many of the sophisticated drug regimes that are dished out regularly in the average doctor's consultation. We simply cannot go on funding the escalating costs of pills and procedures when many illnesses could be prevented or at least relieved by dealing with the underlying mental causes.
But how often does a doctor suggest these alternatives?
Of course the drug companies want us to consume their pills. But at what cost to our health in side effects, interactions between drugs, etc etc?

Did you know that the NHS is now required to prevent illness in their patients and staff, and that preventing illness is the aim of complementary and alternative medicines? 3 out of 4 of us want free CAM on the NHS, but when GPs recommend CAM to us we usually have to pay for it.
All of this and more is covered in papers to be found in THE COLLECTED WORKS OF PROF REGINALD O. KAPP (1885-1966) AND HIS SON JOHN KAPP (1935- ).
under section 9. Here are papers written by John Kapp that continue the philosophy of his father before him, keeping the ideas alive and hopefully working towards recognition and change. Here you will find lots of information and more details of the FREECAM campaign. Do support this fantastic initiative.