Mark Fontes, ND, and Shawn O’Reilly
Dear Members,
We hope you and your families are keeping well as we continue to face the challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic. As 2021 draws to a close, we have been encouraged to hear of more Naturopathic Doctors returning to their clinics and seeing more patients for in-person care while maintaining all required safety precautions. Thank you for your dedication to the naturopathic profession and for bringing such high-quality health care to Canadians.
At the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors (CAND), we are thrilled with the success of the launch and inaugural issue of our new peer-reviewed fully searchable online journal, CANDJ. We are pleased to read and hear all the positive feedback from our members, corporate partners, and those in the naturopathic research field. In only one month, we have had over 2,300 users accessing and reading the CANDJ; there have been 2,329 total abstract and article views and over 400 article downloads. “Evidence-based practice attitudes, skills and usage among Canadian naturopathic doctors: a summary of the evidence and directions for the future” tops the list of most-read articles.
Keeping members up to date on changes to the government’s COVID-19 emergency relief benefits has continued to be a focus for the CAND this fall, along with continued participation as a member of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)’s Health and Allied Health Sector Table. With the increase in research on the positive impact of a number of natural health products in the fight against the pandemic, other stakeholders have joined their voices with ours in advocating for PHAC to take a serious look at the research and consider the use of these low-cost products.
With the return of a minority Liberal government, the CAND will have the opportunity to continue working with Ministers, policy-makers, bureaucrats, and staff with whom we have established relationships. While this will be of great help, work will be required to build relationships with the new Ministers in charge of several of the portfolios that are key to our advocacy work—Health, Indigenous–Crown Relations, and Indigenous Services. We look forward to working with the newly appointed Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Carolyn Bennett, who is familiar with the CAND, as well as with returning Veterans Affairs Minister, Lawrence MacAulay, to ensure naturopathic doctors have access to restricted substances, such as cannabis, for medical purposes, and that the growing numbers of veterans seeking care from naturopathic doctors have coverage for naturopathic services under the Veteran Affairs Canada (VAC) plan. Letters of congratulation have been sent to all Ministers and we are actively engaged in setting up meetings as all parties prepare for a return to the House of Commons in late November.
In November, the CAND board will be holding the second of its semiannual planning sessions. At this weekend-long meeting, your Board of Directors and the CAND staff will review the work we have carried out on behalf of the profession in 2021, identify ongoing issues and challenges for both the profession and the association, outline areas of focus for the work ahead, and plan for a successful 2022. We have a dedicated and hard-working Board and staff, all of whom are committed to ensuring effective advocacy, support, and representation for you, our members. We are excited about the opportunity presented by the planning session to develop our work plan for the year ahead. As always, we look for member engagement, and if you have any suggestions and/or feedback on the work we have done to date, please contact the CAND office.
Dr. Mark Fontes, ND, is Chair of the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors.
Shawn O’Reilly is Executive Director and Director of Government Relations of the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors.
To cite: Fontes M, O’Reilly S. Update from the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors. CAND Journal. 2021;28(4):3. https://doi.org/10.54434/candj.96
Received: 3 November 2021; Accepted: 3 November 2021; Published: 15 December 2021
© 2021 Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors. For permissions, please contact candj@cand.ca.
CAND Journal | Volume 28, No. 4, December 2021