Manual Therapies Week 13 (1)

Explain why cross referral occurs and identify any relevant ethical issues

Cross referral often occurs to factors such as:

• Clients treatment needs are outside practitioners training or scope of practice
• Practitioner requires the client to see another practitioner for therapy as part of a multidisciplinary team e.g. a physio who can assess a person’s injury and request a scan if deemed necessary.
• A GP may refer a client to a number of therapist depending on their needs e.g. a Chiropractor, Physiotherapist, Osteopath, or Chinese Medicine Practitioner 
• Conflict of Interest occurs between treating Practitioner and Client e.g. the Client is the Practitioners family or friend and would prefer to discuss confidential issues with an impartial practitioner
• A multidisciplinary team may be better equipped to assist the client than just one practitioner

Based on the knowledge you have learnt, make a prediction for the future of physical medicine. Justify your prediction.

I think It’s likely that a National Code of Ethics will be developed for Health Care Workers in Australia. This will be used as a guide to assess issues of negligence / failure of Duty of Care. Health Sciences such as Naturopathy (Bachelor of Health Sciences) will probably require registration with AHPRA which means it will be a more regulated industry and require an Integrative Health Care approach with other registered practitioners according to the Individual Clients need. 

This will formalise the profession so that regulations such as standards of practice, not allowing testimonials, increased registration requirements, and memberships to professional associations, will carry more weight legally in terms of duty of care in service to the community. I think smaller but modalities will continue to complement integrative health care, and communicate amongst each other as Health-Care Workers to continue to provide options and an alternative approach to Health Care.