Integral Health Care
O#o van Nieuwenhuijze

The term "Integral Health Care" was designed in order to resolve a fundamental problem of health care: the solutions for healing that exist are not optimally applied.
As a result a world wide potential for health and healing is not effectively used to heal the diseases and ills of humankind; and - especially - prevent diseases.

“Integral Health Care” integrates all of the forms of healing of the planet.
To prevent, and to heal.

No one form of healing stands central: all are used for their best use, and complemented and supplemented by any/all others, as required.

Together, they form Integral Health Care.

All of the world cultures have developed their own world view, suited for their natural and cultural climate. Each of these world views complement each other.
In regarding humanity as a whole, it can be seen that each culture represents a different facet in the exploration of life on Earth. All cultures complement each other, as do organs in a body. (In a larger sense, humanity is an entity, a body, in which each human represents a cell.)

Important in Integral Health Care is the understanding of synergy. This makes use of complementarity. It is specifically the differences in the sameness, whereby all forms of healing together comprise Integral Health Care.
Through the differences, they can all complement and supplement each other, precisely because they have alternative approaches to offer.

Every form of healing has its limitations; which creates problems for the healing art, the respective therapists, clients and society as a whole.
However, when the weaknesses of one form of healing can be compensated for by the strength of another, much more can be achieved and attained.

In this respect we can only speak of Health Care Alternatives.
And the main consideration is: how can the various healing arts be best combined?

At present Health Care is hindered and hampered by the way people live off disease. Many people, for their income, depend on the diseases of others. This – unconsciously – creates a perpetuation of disease; by the dependence of healers on diseases. Autonomy is a characteristic of health; autonomy is also a sign that a society is healthy.

In Integral Health Care this can be resolved by shifting the focus from disease to health, which corresponds with a shift from therapy to prevention. This implies a shift from treatment to education. Therapists thereby acquire a more encompassing role, in not only helping others heal, but also helping others learn to self-heal. This is the concept of Contagious Health.

Integral Health Care is thereby a different approach to healing, not only at the individual level, of therapists and clients alike, but also at the social level. When health care education becomes a main stay in healthcare, prevention becomes the norm, and society becomes much more healthy, and thriving.

For many this is as yet an unusual concept. Many therapists have been taught and trained to heal, and thereby be dependent on patients, and disease. In integral Health Care it is not the disease that stands central, but health. Likewise it is not the therapists that stands central, but the patient. Also, the focus is not on treatment, but education. And the pay-off is not just for the individual, but society, humanity, as a whole. This requires a different conceptualisation in thinking than many people were trained with.

In practice this means that each therapist, and form of healing, trains to be optimally skilled in their technique. But that they do not evaluate their method by the criteria of any other form of healing. Conversely, they do not need to require or demand that others also make use of their forms of healing. In metaphor: if each organ of the body does what it does best, then together they can best ensure the well-being and health of the body as a whole.

In current customary medical practice, there is often a strife for acceptance and recognition, between forms of healing which regard each other as competition. The original word of competition is ‘striving towards the same goal’. By realising that all forms of healing were designed ti help people and humanity heal and be healthy, it is possible to establish that common aim. This can be done to the extent that – as mentioned above – the focus is shifted to learning self healing, whereby prevention indeed becomes better than cure; not only for the individual but also for society as a whole. Much can be saved on expenses; much can be gained on wHealth.

• There is a simple logic by which all forms of healing van be combined.

Our body is composed of an integral system of anatomy, physiology, the neurocrine regulatory system, and our psycho-immune leaning. All forms of healing – in order to be effective – address these principle aspects of our body. Our body thereby is the basis by which all forms of healing can be applied and combined. (The logic of this has been described elsewhere.)

• Integral Health Care integrates all forms of healing of all cultures on our planet.
• Integral Health Care thereby also integrates all cultures on our planet.

All that is required to attain and achieve integral health care is the release of bias that one form of healing, or one culture, is better than any other. They are not. They are simply part of the varied ways in which humanity explores how to best live in health on Earth. Once it is seen that they are all facets of a more encompassing whole, their integration can be ‘automatically’ achieved, with Integral Health Care as a tangible result. For the betterment of heath care, humanity. With, indeed, prevention rather than cure as the norm for living in health.

O#o