"Can AAC provide member support to the same extent as other larger organisations?"
We can categorically state 100% absolutely and we believe in even better support. AAC has been designed from the ground up, looking at other existing organisations and trying to modernise and streamline the way an association should be and modeling this specifically on member needs.
General Enquiries
- The AAC prides itself on the responsiveness and support that we give to our members every day.
- We answer your emails and return your phone calls the same day wherever possible. Those of us that answer your calls are either part of the Working Board of AAC or admin support, but we are all practicing acupuncturists and understand the kind of things that you need on a day to day basis.
- We are absolutely passionate about supporting our profession and our practitioners. We know that within the AAC there is passion for high standards of training, care and treatments.
- We have provided guidance to allow you to work safely, professionally and within current legal and ethical guidelines.
- We have provided guidance for treating minors as well as those who cannot necessarily give informed consent.
Complaints Support
Unlike many organisations both in and outside of acupuncture who have moved to a model of publicly posting and shaming practitioners who make mistakes, AAC do not believe this is useful to the public, practitioner nor the industry and refuse to follow this route. Whilst AAC must protect the public our members must also receive support and assistance, especially in times of complaints which could escalate into a legal nature. It can be a very worrying and stressful time for a practitioner who has concerns or has had a complaint raised against them and we offer advocacy and mentoring to support you through this process. AAC has specifically been setup to carry out this tight-rope act by having robust procedures based on a legal protective framework to allow us to independently and fairly assess complaints which aims to de-escalate and mediate any issues to the satisfaction of both parties. Furthermore, we must try and prevent complaints, if at all possible, advancing towards more litigious outcomes and without public shaming which can destroy the careers of perfectly good practitioners who simply made an error of judgment at the time which with supportive help can be corrected for the benefit of the public and industry alike. Complaints must be sensibly qualified and sensibly assessed as to the risks caused and the loss by the complainant for the complaint. If we feel that we must sanction a member or require them to do further training, then this is considered a private matter to be overseen by us and not to be made public. If we feel that someone should no longer be in practice, we will be clear on our website.
- Respect from the Healthcare Industry for our Practitioners
- Recognition for our skills sets
- Providing opportunities to deepen and expand our skills
- Supporting our Members proactively and when they need it
- Driving change where it benefits our industry
Legal and Advisory Support
We are here to help with any issue you may have to do with your clinic, patients, and treatments regardless of whether legal or professional. We are all human beings and we recognise that we all experience difficult times in our professional lives and we are here to support you. No association has such a wide range of diverse yet specialised support for members should they require it and these areas are covered by our four support pillars –
- Our working board are all practitioners and have a huge range of legal and advisory expertise in this area and we are here to support you no matter what you need.
- We have partnered with Balens Insurance which means we have full access to their legal department as well as David Balen himself who we liaise with weekly.
- We have a team of specialist regulatory lawyers headed by Paul Grant who has huge experience in fighting regulatory and code of conduct issues and complaints in both statutory and non-statutory areas.
- On top of all of this we have support from Suzanne Dibble (Richard Branson’s ex-lawyer) who can help advise us on our policies and in-clinic legal guidelines and support.
- Robert Loveday is our corporate, commercial and litigation lawyer.
- The last member of our support team is Jon Payne who is a specialist licensing lawyer and provides legal support on a range of local authority licensing areas.
You can also speak with our CEO or deputy CEO at any time – we are here for you and love helping our members.
AAC Mentoring Support Programme
What is mentoring?
Mentoring is a time for self reflection. Professional mentoring is about creating a confidential space where we as practitioners can explore and reflect on the many issues that arrive within our practices.
Mentoring considers the needs of the practitioner. It increases the effectiveness of our practice by offering us a chance to stand back and reflect. It gives support and encouragement. It helps maintain enthusiasm in our work and it relieves tension that can build up when working alone. Mentoring is an opportunity to focus on professional and personal issues that we encounter in our practice every day. Here are some examples of the topics that are brought for discussion within a mentoring session:
- Lack of confidence
- Ethics
- Confidentiality
- Building up a practice
- Time management
- Relationships with other practitioners and professionals
- Burnout
- Working with emotional issues
- Balancing the different demands in our lives while practising.
- Income requirements
- Clinical management
- Boundaries
Who will run the group ?
The AAC mentoring sessions are facilitated by a practitioner who has gone through a year’s supervision training program and is qualified to hold a supervision mentoring group. All our group leaders are qualified and practicing acupuncturists, who are also members of the AAC.
Who can have Mentoring?
Within your AAC membership, we have provisioned a service for you to purchase a block of 6 online sessions within a mentoring group that are set at a hugely advantageous price. The groups run every 6 to 8 weeks and are carried out on Zoom. Each session lasts up to 2hours. There is also an option for One to One Mentoring if you feel that is what would suit you best.
If you would like to participate, Please visit the shop at Shop – AAC
Training Support
We also offer training in areas that our practitioners have worked in for years without recognition – mycology, supplementation, testing and we have worked with our insurer to be able to have this covered within the policy without any further costs. We also offer specialist training in other areas that is rarely seen in any other organisation. Visit our shop for details.
Insurance Support
We have designed a specific and heavily discounted scheme for acupuncturists and which includes all the usual additional modalities included at this price. Unlike block schemes, our policy is totally flexible and you may add other qualifications and insurance usually at no additional charge. Many insurances do not cover specific skillsets of high risk such as blood-letting or the use of semi-permanent needles, however our scheme has been designed to be able to offer these as additional options as well as cover wider scopes of practice by including subjects such as phlebotomy and being able to offer private blood tests for our clients.