FAQs
Q. Who can join FICTA?
Membership of FICTA is open to therapist's association which meet membership requirements, to course providers and others who satisfy membership criteria and who support the Aims of FICTA.
Neither full nor associate membership of FICTA meets insurance requirements to be registered with a practitioners association which upholds standards of education and training, sufficient for the safe and efficient practice of a therapy
Q. What does it cost to join?
Membership fees are decided and calculated on a sliding-scale. The determining factor is the number of therapists registered with an association at the end of the previous year, which means that all the members are paying the same amount per therapist registered with them. It also means that associations are less likely to inflate membership figures, as happened in the past when the suggestion was going around that the therapies with the most practitioners should, proportionally, have the most influence in deciding policy. FICTA feels that is not fair or equitable.
Q. Does FICTA regulate Practitioners or Therapies?
No. FICTA is not a regulating authority in any sense. The registration (accreditation) and regulation of complementary therapists is the responsibility of Practitioner Associations / Professional Bodies.
FICTA has participated in the National Working Group for the Regulation of Complementary Therapists and favours self-regulation. Voluntary Self Regulation (VSR) is also supported by Minister Harney. Associations have a pivotal role in the regulation of our therapists and looking after their interests.
FICTA does not register Practitioners.
Q. Does FICTA make Awards?
No. From the beginning of the consultation process, FICTA has made submissions on the development of the National Framework for Awards to insure the inclusion of our Professional Awards in the Framework.
HETAC (Higher Education and Training Awards Council) has developed interim award standards for complementary therapies and is committed to piloting a small number of courses, on the condition that the associations representing these therapies are federated and united in agreement on the standards and that the programmes otherwise meet the requirements for a HETAC award.
Q. Does FICTA provide Insurance cover?
No. However and with growing success, FICTA has, and continues to advise therapists on how to have their services covered by private insurance companies.
Q. So what does FICTA do?
FICTA provides a democratic and neutral forum in which its members can meet on a regular basis, to confer and collaborate in responding to pertinent consultative documents and publications, developing advisory/information documents and guidelines in the interests of complementary and alternative therapies in Ireland and which the members are free to avail of to whatever extent and means they wish.
Q. Why should professional bodies join FICTA?
By joining FICTA, your association would be at the forefront of shaping the future development of CAM in Ireland. In coming together to form a strong cohesive and self governing body, complementary therapy interest groups have the best chance of influencing government policy on the inclusion of our services in general healthcare and social services.
Q. CAM? What's that?
The short answer is that CAM is a wide range of healing therapies that are not available to people under the HSE.
There have been many, many attempts made to define or explain what Complementary and Alternative Therapies are. The one put forward by Cochrane Collaboration is as good as any. It says that "Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is a broad domain of healing resources that encompasses all health systems, modalities and practices and their accompanying theories and beliefs, other than those intrinsic to the politically dominant health system of a particular society or culture in a given historical period”.
Please e-mail your questions to FICTA at 2ficta@ficta.com