About The Complementary Medical Association
The CMA was established in 1993 to promote ethical, professional complementary medicine, to protect the rights of all professionals in this field and to ensure that the public and medical profession have access to effective, compassionate healthcare.
The Complementary Medical Association's (The CMA) Primary Aim Is To Promote Ethical, Responsible, Professional Complementary Medicine To The Public And The Medical Profession
Our Mission
We believe that by promoting The CMA and its Registered Members in all categories, though the media and online in a hugely high-profile manner, we are able to help the public and doctors to realise that complementary and integrative medicine is – when delivered safely and ethically – a viable and highly desirable form of healthcare.
In addition, here at The CMA, we are totally dedicated to representing “the professional face of complementary medicine” and by promoting research, education, and knowledge in the field, we will help to stimulate demand for the medicine of the 21st century and beyond.
The CMA is great news for professional practitioners, ethical colleges, and patients who demand and expect excellence in every aspect of treatment.
What is the CMA?
The CMA is a not-for-profit organisation which means that any funds we raise, through membership fees, book and product sales or donations are invested straight back into the organisation.
A great part of our work consists of referring public and conventional medics alike to CMA registered practitioners so that they can be assured that treatment will be delivered by a highly qualified, insured practitioner who adheres to a strict Code of Ethics and disciplinary procedure. We call this the “CMA Referrals Scheme“.
In addition, we are able to help members of the public who wish to train in the complementary medical field to access our Registered Training Schools and Colleges.
We provide assistance to Schools who wish to have their courses Registered and Accredited by The CMA.
We work closely with the conventional medical profession as we ultimately believe that the most important person after all, is the patient, and we believe that by presenting patients with good, accurate information about complementary medical approaches, they can make responsible informed decisions about their own healthcare. It is important to remember that both complementary and conventional medicine have a great deal to offer – when used appropriately, justifiably, and responsibly. Ultimately, the freedom to choose one’s own healthcare is a vital human right that should be protected.
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Our History
The CMA was established in early 1993 by Jayney Goddard in response to the overriding lack of public and medical knowledge about the complementary medical profession.
During the initial two years we devoted our time to performing the market research that would indicate whether there could be a viable way of raising the profile of ethical, responsible complementary medicine. It was vital to establish and justify whether “yet another organisation” needed to exist in the already saturated complementary medical organisation field.
We spent a long time analysing the entire arena and found that nothing was being done at that time by any membership body or organisation to promote practitioners or training schools in a high profile, professional manner.
Furthermore, at that time, complementary medicine had a very unprofessional profile; somewhat akin to a cottage industry. This was a sorry state of affairs, and it became rapidly apparent that The CMA needed to exist if professional complementary medicine were to stand a chance.
Here at The CMA we are a dedicated team of committed professionals (we’re all qualified healthcare practitioners), and we are absolutely serious about achieving our mission. We have always had a commitment to making sure that our Members can contact us easily and will always be able to get through to a real person at the end of the phone line. In addition, our e-communications are exceptionally effective, and we are able to disseminate important information to our Members extremely rapidly and efficiently.
As a demonstration of our commitment to our Members, we are proud to report that during the first two years of our existence we had a marketing and research expenditure of just over £200,000, which back in the early 1990’s was a huge budget.
Where are we now?
The CMA opened its doors to members at the beginning of 1995 and to date, The CMA represents the interests of thousands of practitioners in various categories – including students and 180+ Training School / College members with additional organisations approaching us regularly.
We also have another membership section, “Friends of The CMA”, which comprises a variety of supporters, all of whom are keen to support the work of The CMA.
Our initial marketing and research budget of £200,000 spent during our first two years, has grown to an investment of approximately £150,000 per annum. This will help to demonstrate our commitment to the professionalism of complementary medicine.
The CMA has a high media profile, and we constantly work with major media organisations.
We are committed to cultivating a high media profile, through which we achieve in excess of ten individual media exposures per week including TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet. Our estimated monthly reach is circa 650,000 individuals.
We are committed to thinking creatively when it comes to promoting our members, and we are dedicated to working creatively when promoting our Member’s interests – just one example of this is that The CMA has – over the years – even undertaken extremely high profile promotional campaigns utilising advertising space on London Underground trains and Docklands Light Railway.
Global Force
Due to the Internet and this web site, The CMA is now a multinational organisation, and we are currently setting up “centres of complementary medical excellence” in various overseas locations.
USA
Jayney Goddard, President of the Complementary Medical Association, was invited to testify in front of the USA’s White House Committee on Complementary Medicine. Jayney was asked to provide information that the US government might be able to utilise to help rationalise complementary medicine in the States.
The situation there is complex, as each State has its own laws pertaining to complementary medicine. Based upon Jayney’s testimony that explained how and why The CMA is such a successful organisation and the reasons why The CMA has been able to help so many other Governments, the Congress made several proposals to the Whitehouse Commission, all of which were accepted unanimously.
CONCHY
The CMA has worked closely with Nepalese Colleges based Kathmandu, Nepal affiliated to Mahendra Sanskrit University. Due to the political situation in Nepal at the present time, this course is temporarily on hold.
CMA President Jayney Goddard was invited to the Nepalese Embassy as a guest of the Ambassador in order to receive an award in recognition of her efforts to assist Nepal in promoting high-level complementary medical training.
Egypt, India, Afghanistan and Cyprus
The CMA is currently working on setting up relationships within these countries.
The Bulgarian Government
Jayney Goddard was invited as a guest of the Bulgarian government to inspect their Balneotherapy centres in several locations. Balneotherapy is an officially recognised form of naturopathic medicine, and the Bulgarian Government is keen to capitalise upon their country’s excellent treatment centres and to bring them worldwide recognition.
The Bulgarian Balneotherapy centres proved to offer a sophisticated blend of conventional and complementary medical techniques, and Jayney was most impressed with their model of a fully integrated, officially recognised, integrated medical system.
Hungary
Jayney Goddard was tasked by the Hungarian government to undertake a similar project to that performed for the Bulgarian government – as it was keen to promote their superb medical spa culture.
China
The Chinese government is keen to establish high quality complementary medicine within China and wishes to establish The Complementary Medical Association there.
The CMA is negotiating at governmental level in many cases to help governments to understand that Complementary Medicine does not pose a threat, but that it can and will positively benefit their people and consequently, their medical systems, and assist in combatting the pandemic of lifestyle related conditions that are a huge threat to countries, their populations and their economies worldwide.
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