Media release

13 Feb 2014

The National Boards have published revised guidelines and codes of conduct, and a new social media policy, which come into effect from mid-March.

Revised obligations for chiropractors released today, effective from March

The Chiropractic Board of Australia (the National Board) has released a suite of documents today that will come into effect from mid-March 2014.

The documents contain important information and are the:

• revised Guidelines for advertising regulated health services
• revised Guidelines for mandatory notifications
• revised Code of conduct for chiropractors, and
• new Social media policy.

Registered chiropractors must now read and familiarise themselves with this guidance to ensure their practice meets National Board expectations from mid-March, when the documents come into effect.

The advertising and mandatory notifications guidelines and Social media policy are common across all National Boards and apply to all health practitioners registered under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (the National Scheme).

The Code of conduct for chiropractors is based on the common code of conduct shared by several other National Boards, with additional content relevant to the chiropractic profession.

The documents are the result of a scheduled review three years into the National Scheme and are the first set of revised documents to be released this year, with more to come later in 2014.

Chiropractic Board of Australia Chair, Dr Phillip Donato OAM, said the National Board consulted widely last year on the draft versions of the new guidelines, Social media policy and Code of conduct for chiropractors.

‘We have an ongoing focus on best practice regulation in the public interest and in public protection; and drew input from the review of the common code of conduct used by most other National Boards,’ Dr Donato said.

‘The experiences from the first three years of the National Scheme were applied when these documents were being reviewed to make sure that they are clear and make it easier for chiropractors to understand their obligations, and for members of the community to understand what is expected of the chiropractic profession.’

The National Board will be holding information sessions about the revised obligations for chiropractors across the country in the coming months. Chiropractors will be advised by email on a state-by-state basis about the sessions for their state.

Further information about the new guidelines, Social media policy and revised Code of conduct for chiropractors is available on the Chiropractic Board website.

FAQ and additional information

• FAQ (118 KB,DOCX) on the transition from the current to the new/revised documents.
• Document (513 KB,DOCX) showing the differences between the current and revised Mandatory notifications guidelines.

For more information

• Lodge an online enquiry form
• For registration enquiries: 1300 419 495 (within Australia) +61 3 8708 9001 (overseas callers)
• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200

Download a PDF of this Media release - Revised obligations for chiropractors released today effective from March - 13 February 2014 (249 KB,PDF)