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14.03.2019

How did we promote, represent and support our members over the past year?

As a member, customer or partner of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society we value and thank you for your ongoing commitment and engagement. Over the past year our professional team and contributors in the office, and the Board and sub-committees, have been passionately working hard to promote, represent and support you – our accredited practitioners of natural medicine to the highest standards. 

 

We look to the future, and always strive to improve, take feedback and add more for our members, however we’d also like to showcase the efforts that were made in 2018 to provide you with value in your membership.

Highlights:

  • CPE Events & Professional Development Program
  • National Seminar Series 2018
  • PCOS Symposium – Sydney
  • Chronic Infections & Toxicity Seminar & AGM 2018
  • Advocacy, Lobbying and PR
  • I Support Natural Medicine and I Vote Campaign
  • How Dare They Campaign
  • Wentworth Candidates Forum hosted by ATMS
  • Collaboration – Industry Partnerships
  • Supporting the Your Health Your Choice Petition
  • Connecting with CMA and COSBOA
  • Nature & Health + ATMS Awards
  • Natural Medicine Week
  • Marketing and Advertising – Raising Awareness of Multi-Modality Therapies with the Public
    • Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn
    • Advertising in Nature & Health Magazine
    • Advertising with Wellbeing Magazine
    • Monthly Wise N Well – ATMS Update
    • Bi-Monthly Friends of Natural Medicine Newsletter
  • Journal of ATMS
  • NEW Student Events: Transition to Practice Seminar

Read the full review: How did we support you in 2018?

Continuing Professional Education (CPE) & Special Events

CPE Event Program

Improving the CPE program was in the top four priorities for members and in the past couple of years ATMS has invested in the development of the most comprehensive multi-modality CPE & Events program in Australia for natural medicine practitioners. CPE is a Constitutional requirement for members to maintain their accreditation status with ATMS, it is also a criterion for health fund provider status.

Our CPE program includes:

  • 6-month CPE & Events Calendar (released in December and June for advanced bookings)
  • More than 100 events per year including Webinars, Workshops and Seminars
  • Variety of topics across Ingestive, Bodywork & Massage, and Chinese Medicine
  • Australia-wide coverage with events accessible in city locations and regional areas
  • Highly sought after and expert speakers
  • In 2018, more than 5,161 practitioners attended the CPE Program events

To see the CPE program for 2019, visit: https://www.atms.com.au/atms-events/

National Seminar Series 2018

Each year ATMS host a seminar tour around Australia covering a trending health related topic to provide practitioners with up-to-date and expert information that will improve confidence, knowledge and practical skills to utilise with their clients.

More than 300 practitioners attended our National Seminar Series in 2018. Our focus in 2019 for the National Seminar Series tour is: Wellness, Weight loss and Women featuring Kira Sutherland and Lara Briden.

PCOS Symposium - Sydney

In 2018, ATMS hosted the PCOS Symposium, a one-day event to focus on the important issues around this condition. We invited 5 speakers to share their expertise at the sold out Sydney event which saw  166 practitioners attending. ATMS are currently developing a new Symposium program for 2019 focusing on a specialised health topic.

Chronic Infections & Toxicity Seminar & AGM 2018

Each year ATMS brings together an array of health experts to speak about an important topic and to capture the attention of Australia’s natural medicine practitioners and provide professional training and development. This is combined with the AGM – an opportunity for members to ask questions and be informed, and the ATMS Awards Dinner – a chance to celebrate excellence in our industry. 

Advocacy, Lobbying and PR

The Coalition Government legislated reforms to private health insurance that take effect 1 April 2019 to compel Australia’s health funds to change private health insurance policies to exclude certain natural medicine modalities. ATMS has consistently opposed this change and maintains this is a bad decision that will create bad law and result in poor public health outcomes.

 

From 2017, and throughout 2018, ATMS was persistent in lobbying the Government to reverse this decision and continues to do so through active government relations, meetings with Ministers in Canberra, collaboration with fellow natural and complementary medicine Associations, and numerous letter-writing and petition campaign initiatives.

Here’s some of the major initiatives ATMS used for lobbying:

I Support Natural Medicine and I Vote Campaign

www.atms.com.au/support-natural-medicine/

 

More than 100,000 people in Australia supported the campaign by writing letters to the Health Minister, their local MPs, or sharing, liking and commenting on social media. This evidence was put forward to the Government as proof of the public and professional support for the industry.

How Dare They Campaign

https://www.facebook.com/howdarethey


In 2018, ATMS launched an extensive marketing and advertising digital initiative: the How Dare They! campaign aimed at the Federal Parliament as the Coalition Government moved to scrap the private health insurance rebate on natural therapies. More than 5,000 people wrote a letter directly to the Health Minister via an online crowd sourcing tool and hundreds of thousands engaged via social media.

Wentworth Candidates Forum hosted by ATMS

www.atms.com.au/atms-host-wentworth-candidates-forum/

 

ATMS hosted the Wentworth Candidates Forum and invited the representatives nominating for the electorate of Wentworth to present to local practitioners on their position on natural medicine. This was a fantastic opportunity to build a strong relationship with the now Member for Wentworth, Dr Kerryn Phelps.

Collaboration – Industry Partnerships

By working closely with our fellow Associations and like-minded peers, ATMS knows that we can influence the direction of natural and complementary medicine in Australia. During 2018, a priority was to build strong affiliation and connections with organisations and people of importance in our profession to influence at Government and market level.

 

  • We continue to support the Your Health Your Choice Petition – yourhealthyourchoice.com.au
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  • We worked closely with CMA (cmaustralia.org.au) and other Associations to collaborate on lobbying efforts and share knowledge on important industry insights.
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  • We connected with COSBOA (Council of Small Business Organisations Australia – cosboa.org.au) to discuss lobbying from a small business stand point and represent our large community of small business practitioners.

 

Through partnerships and sponsorships, we connected with industry suppliers including Blackmores, Metagenics, Biomedica, FX Medicine and more. Thank you to our ongoing partners and sponsors at our special events.

Nature & Health + ATMS Awards

Celebrating clinic of the year, practitioner of the year and student of the year, ATMS hosted the 3rd annual Nature & Health + ATMS Awards in Adelaide. Watch out for the new awards program coming in 2019!

Natural Medicine Week 2018

www.naturalmedicineweek.com.au

 

ATMS hosted the third annual Natural Medicine Week – an initiative to promote, educate and raise awareness of the important role natural medicine practitioners play in the health and wellbeing of Australians. This is the largest multi-modality consumer awareness week in Australia for natural and complementary medicine,

 

Results included:

 

  • 100+ Member Events and Special Offers Hosted
  • 115 Practitioner/Partner posts on social media
  • 100s of ATMS Social Media posts and shares
  • Over 1 million people reached across social media
  • Email marketing reaching over 80,186 members and public
  • Over 19,000 visitors to the Natural Medicine Week website in 5 months
  • Over 100,000 people reached via media coverage

Marketing and Advertising – Raising Awareness of Multi-Modality Therapies with the Public

ATMS have more that 40,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn where we regularly advocate for natural medicine, share positive news and updates, provide new research, promote different types of therapies, and showcase our ‘Find a Practitioner’ tool.

 

We send out a bi-monthly newsletter ‘Friends of Natural Medicine’ to update our public followers on all-things natural health and wellbeing.

 

ATMS advertise consumer promotions, write blogs and provide editorial comment in Nature & Health Magazine and Wellbeing Magazine.

Journal of ATMS (JATMS)

Over the year we have produced a quarterly Journal of ATMS – a peer reviewed, long-standing and trusted practitioner publication sourcing the most trusted and progressive research in the area of natural medicine.

NEW Student Events: Transition to Practice Seminar

Exclusive to ATMS – Transition to Practice Seminar – from the classroom to the clinic hosted 175 student and graduate practitioners across 5 cities in 2018. We are fully committed to assisting new practitioners in the industry to sustain the long-term success of our industry.  

There’s lots more to come in 2019 as we look to lead the advancement of natural medicine in Australia and continue to promote, represent and support our accredited member practitioners across all modalities. 

 

We welcome suggestions and feedback, and one of the many benefits of being a member of ATMS is a direct line to our professional and experienced administration team. To contact us call 1800 456 855 or email info@atms.com.au.

 

Thank you from everyone at ATMS for your ongoing support of our organisation.