The Federation of Holistic Therapists has announced the winners of its inaugural Complementary Therapy Awards.
The awards, which were organised by design and communications agency Chamberlain Dunn, celebrate practitioners, teams and advocates who have enhanced the health and wellbeing of others through a series of initiatives that encourage an integrated approach to patient-centred care.
The ceremony was broken down into eight categories: Overall Winner; Prevention and Self-Care; Cancer Care; Palliative Care; The FHT Award for Complementary Therapy Research; Pain Management, Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation; Mental Health and Wellbeing; and Furthering Integrated Health Care.
Angie Buxton-King, director of the Sam Buxton Sunflower Healing Trust was named the overall winner of the evening and won the award for Cancer Care for the initiative: 'Integrated healing into hospitals and hospices.'
Roberta Meldurm, director of The Letchworth Centre for Healthy Living won the award for Prevention and Self-Care for 'Positive Movement - a wellbeing programme for older people'
'25 years - Complementary therapies in NHS palliative care' by Elaine Cooper, clinical lead specialist complementary therapies, and Rachel Clark, lead complementary therapist palliative care won the award for Palliative Care, while Naji Malak, co-founder and CEO of Stand Easy Military Support, won in the Mental Health and Wellbeing category, for the 'Stand Easy Military Support' initiative.
The award for Pain Management, Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation was given to Gina Reinge, sports therapist at The Reinge Clinic, for the 'Adhesive arachnoiditis case study'.
Gwyn Featonby, FHT accredited course provider education lead at NHS Natural Health School and Julie Crossman, FHT member and complementary therapy lead at NHS Natural Health School, won the award for Furthering Integrated Healthcare. While the FHT Award for Complementary Therapy Research was awarded to Nicola Brough, clinic director at Torus Wellbeing Clinic, and Sarah Stewart-Brown, chair of Public Health at the University of Warwick for their initiative: 'Development and validation of the Warkwick Holistic Health Questionnaire (WHHQ): assessing changes in health and wellbeing of Craniosacral Therapy/CAM users'.
Christopher Byrne, president of the FHT, said: "The FHT has been at the forefront of promoting high standards in therapy training and practice for more than 50 years, which is why we are extremely proud to support these new awards."
"These Complementary Therapy Awards will help to bring further recognition to the important role professional therapists have to play in not just supporting the public, but also the integrated healthcare agenda as a whole, which is one of FHT's key objectives," Byrne added.
