NCCAM launches Time to Talk campaign

June 10, 2008 —The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has launched Time to Talk, an educational campaign to encourage patients — particularly those age 50 or older — and their healthcare providers to openly discuss the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

 The Time to Talk campaign is aimed at addressing the need for this dialogue to help ensure safe, coordinated care among all conventional and CAM therapies. Talking not only allows integrated care, it also minimizes risks of interactions with a patient’s conventional treatments. When patients tell their providers about their CAM use, they can more effectively manage their health.

When providers ask their patients about CAM use, they can ensure they are fully informed and can help patients make wise healthcare decisions.

NCCAM’s Time to Talk campaign encourages patients to tell their providers about CAM use and providers to ask about it by offering tools and resources, such as wallet cards, posters, and tip sheets — all of which are available for free on the NCCAM Web site.

For more information on Time to Talk, visit nccam.nih.gov/timetotalk. To order or download materials, call NCCAM’s information clearinghouse at 888-644-6226.

 Source: National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, www.nccam.nih.gov