Abstract
Homeopathy and African Traditional Medicine (ATM) are considered subgroups of Traditional Medicine (TM). While each profession has previously compared its practice and professional approach to conventional medicine, there has been no known systematic comparison between them.
This study aimed to compare the scope of professional operations, regulatory requirements, and training of the practices of homeopathy and ATM in South Africa (SA) by way of comparative analysis. The results yielded three themes, namely; (1) the underlying philosophy that guides the practices, which revealed that both practices have a holistic approach to treating patients (2) established parameters within which the practices can exist, which presented that professional regulatory bodies are in place where homeopathy is semi-institutionalised and ATM still not. Finally (3) how the practices engage with their patients, where it was shown that the treatment of patients is individualised.
The homeopathic profession has education programmes long-established within tertiary education institutions whereas there are no professional training programmes for ATM or any minimum prescribed formal level of education which would permit practice. With regards to the treatment and management of patients, both draw patients to their services for the nature of services the practitioner may offer which is often beyond the conventional expectation of diagnosis and therapy. THPs respond to a calling through ancestors, and that calling also guides the type of practitioner the THP will be. Homoeopaths choose to become homeopaths.
Understanding the practices of and sharing information about ATM and homeopathy, may assist professionals from each domain to build greater cooperation and also provide them and governmental stakeholders to realise what approaches may have already worked or existed to assist their further development.