The Medical Model

Modern Western Medicine is firmly and fixedly based on the medical model in which a doctor identifies a set of patient's symptoms and makes a diagnosis that is then confirmed by a physical examination. An approved treatment for that diagnosis is then applied. In general this will be a chemical to interfere with some bodily mechanism, to replace some chemical identified as lacking or to poison germs. More radically it may be a surgical intervention to remove or rearrange parts of a sufferer's body.

This process is intellectual and based on the "diagnosis". It takes no account of the sufferer's mental, social or spiritual life all of which have a major effect on the way people respond to illness.

Complementary Medicine

As its name suggests, complementary medicine should work with modern western medicine to address the problems of a mental, social and spiritual nature in a more rounded way to deal with illness and disability.

Modern Western Medicine is well arranged with colleges, forums, journals and other learned areas for discussion and dissemination of ideas. Complementary medicine is fragmented and does not have a readily accessible evidence base. It does not therefore have the credibility to put it into its proper place, that of equal partnership with modern western medicine.

Shared Care

Shared Care exists as a forum of communities to inform patients, practitioners and doctors in a credible way about the various complementary therapies and techniques available. To that end those featured will be evidence based and the evidence base will be of a pragmatic rather than academic nature. The criteria loosely being that all featured therapies will produce a noticeable benefit in a big enough proportion of users to make them worthwhile for recommendation.

Shared Care exists as a forum of communities to allow those patients who have had benefits from complementary medicine to share that knowledge with others and to encourage practitioners of all sorts to produce evidence of their efficacy.

Shared Care exists as a forum of communities to allow practitioners and manufacturers of devices and testing laboratories to evaluate their services against those of others in the field and in so doing to unify and raise standards of care in complementary medicine.

Shared Care exists as a forum of communities to exchange ideas and thoughts about all aspects of wellbeing through community to allow complementary medicine to take its proper place as an equal partner with all others in health care.

Shared Care recognises that the diagnostic categories and criteria may be different in some complementary medicines from those used in modern western medicine and so the primary category will often be symptom based (headache, backache and so on) unless the disease's modern western medical name is well known and its symptoms broadly familiar to our communities. This reflects the cultural base of the editorial board, which welcomes contributions based on other methodologies.

Shared Care and People with Health or Life Problems and Those who Help Them

Shared Care is a community for patients and sufferers from any condition or life problem of whatever cause. Here you can communicate with other people who have a similar problem who will be able to help because they have the invaluable benefit of having "been there, had the experience" and so know from firsthand experience at least one way to move forward. Here you can ask practitioners about their therapies and techniques to pick the best for you based on the common experience of the community. Here you can tell others about the therapies and techniques that suited you best and help the practitioners raise awareness and perform research.

Here you can experience "shared care"

Do you need or can you help with an illness or health problem?

Do you need or can you help with a life issue such as divorce, or bereavement.

The Pages about Therapies and Techniques

Shared Care and Research

Shared Care is a community for research. Here you can communicate with other like-minded people in your therapy area. Here you can set up research programs at a distance from your base and organise multicultural, multinational studies of your special therapy. Here you can work to provide the evidence necessary to lift your therapy to its proper place as an equal partner with modern western medicine. Here you can recruit patients for your studies.

The Research Pages

Here you can experience "shared care"

Shared Care and Carers

Shared Care is a community of carers. Here you can correspond with others who have your special difficulties. Here you can share ideas, difficulties and solutions. Here you can ask questions of help and self-help groups related to the difficulties of the person you are caring for. Here you can contact sufferers of the same problem as the person you are caring for and here you can share problems and answers with people who are carers of those whose problems are the same as the person you are caring for. Here you can communicate with carers' organisations and manufacturers of special equipment for carers and those they care for needs.

Do you need or can you help with an illness or health problem?

Do you need or can you help with a life issue such as divorce, or bereavement.

The Pages about Therapies and Techniques

The Carers Pages

Here you can experience "shared care"

Shared Care and Practitioners' Groups

Shared Care is a community of practitioner groups. Here you can correspond with groups of other practitioners in different parts of the world who practise your particular therapy. Here you can publicise evidence-based treatments and share knowledge and friendship with other groups worldwide. Here you can show patients that your organisation is well regulated and organised.

The Pages about Therapies and Techniques

Here you can experience "shared care"

Shared Care and Support Groups

Shared Care is a community of help and self-help groups. Here you can introduce yourself to people who suffer the problems you exist to help. Here you can share ideas with your peers in your own and other centres. Here you can find the evidence of therapies and techniques that you can recommend to your members. Here you can expand your ways of helping your members by exploring the range of available therapies, techniques and services.

Do you need or can you help with an illness or health problem?

Do you need or can you help with a life issue such as divorce, or bereavement.

Here you can experience "shared care"

Shared Care and Practitioners

Shared Care is a community of practitioners. Here you can exchange the latest ideas with your peer group, explain your treatments to a targeted group of sufferers. Here you can recruit patients for research to provide the evidence base for inclusion in our pages. Here you can contact your professional bodies on a formal or informal basis. Here you can introduce yourself to the patients help and self-help groups or the manufactures of equipment that you might wish to use, knowing that they will have fulfilled our evidence based criteria.

The Pages about Therapies and Techniques

Here you can experience "shared care"