INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE

CHRONIC DISEASE

OBJECTIVES AND GOALS

MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP

SASIM CONSTITUTION

1. To promote the science, art, philosophy and practice of integrative medicine.

2. To define clearly the relationship between promoting health and treating disease.

3. To protect the professional and legal interests of practitioners registered with the society.

4. To maintain professional standards for such practitioners.

5. To define and establish relationships amongst practitioners of integrative medicine and their colleagues in hospitals, academic centres of learning, private and government institutions, other medical professionals and interested bodies.

6. To maintain dialogue with practitioners and other health practitioners who are not members of SASIM.

7. To establish a philosophical foundation for the practice of integrative medicine.

8. To promote the study and practice of integrative medicine by establishing an
Educational Programme.

9. To keep a register of the practitioners completing such a study and to apply for registration with the HPCSA.

10. To manage all matters related and beneficial to the achievement of the above mentioned goals, collectively or partially.

SASIM has different goals to its predecessor SACMA [SA Complementary Medical Association], whose members were subjected to dual registration with the Allied Health Professions Council [AHPCSA]. SASIM is concerned that increasing definition of scopes of practice may leave its members in a “no man’s land”.
Conventional medicine must change as the demands by the public for integrated medicine increase, and the grey areas between conventional medicine and complementary medicine become blurred. Medical doctors are responding to the demands of patients by including integrative approaches in practice.

We believe that SASIM incorporates the next wave in medicine. SASIM actively campaigns for the maintenance and protection of a broad scope of practice, so that the principles of Integrative Medicine are not excluded by increasing “protectionism” by other disciplines.