An integrated approach to healthcare

Posted 19th May 2008 15:29pm

By Kim Lavely, Chief Executive of The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health (FIH)

At FIH, we have a vision of a society in which people are inspired to achieve optimal health and wellbeing. At the moment you could argue that our health system in this country is an ‘illness service’ – you wait until something is wrong with you, then go to the doctor looking for the right pill to fix the problem.

We want to see a system where there’s a much stronger emphasis on prevention and self-care – so that throughout their lives people can make choices about food, housing, exercise and community that will support their wellbeing. We’d like to see messages about health being reinforced by schools, workplaces and community centres – rather than just being the preserve of doctors.

In the end of course, almost all of us will need help from healthcare professionals. We make the case for healthcare that makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches, healthcare professionals and disciplines – allowing for patient choice with a human face.

As a charity our remit is very broad. We act as ideas brokers - bringing together healthcare professionals, researchers, business leaders and policy makers to generate good ideas.

We’ve also been helping many complementary therapists become regulated so people who do choose to use their services can have confidence that they are visiting someone responsible and appropriately qualified.

Above all, we’d like to focus public debate on the way that the nature of ill-health has changed in the last 100 years – most people now suffer from chronic, long-term illness rather than short acute bouts of disease. We need a 21st Century approach to health to catch up with our changing society.