Though it is painful to say it, Australian Skeptics have ‘awarded’ the 2024 Bent Spoon award to the Cancer Council WA for its endorsement of the pseudomedical and unscientific practices of Reiki and Reflexology.
The Spoon is given annually to the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of pseudoscientific or paranormal piffle. It has been awarded every year since 1982.
The Cancer Council WA is a registered charity with the stated purpose of working “with our community to reduce the incidence and the impact of cancer” based on “the most solid foundation of evidence available in every practice we embrace”.
While the Cancer Council nationally reviews “complementary” therapies in its publications, in some cases highlighting doubts about their efficacy, the WA branch offers free complementary therapies to cancer patients and their families, the choice “guided by evidence-based best practice and research”. (None of the other state-based Councils seems to offer these therapies.)
The WA Council says that “Complementary therapies such as massage, beauty therapies, and reiki, are used in conjunction with conventional medical treatments and are increasingly considered an important part of supportive care, that helps people address a wide range of challenges beyond medical treatment or cancer. They aim to improve general wellbeing, quality of life and can help people to cope with the side effects of cancer.”
It adds that the therapies it offers have “demonstrated safety for use with people affected by cancer”, which is not surprising if they do nothing that might be considered invasive, let alone a therapy.
The inclusion of reiki, which is a system in which the practitioner passes their hands through the air over the patient, often without touching them, supposedly to help “balance” their energy flows, is particularly concerning for an organisation designed to help people during and after their diagnosis for cancer and subsequent evidence-based treatment.
Tim Mendham, executive officer of Australian Skeptics Inc, said the Cancer Council WA was the choice of Skeptics groups across Australia, and it was a decision that was taken very seriously. “We do not wish in any way to criticise cancer sufferers – most of us would know someone, if not themselves, who have suffered from cancer in one form or another. And we also do not want to impugn the motivations of the Cancer Council WA.
“But, for a worthy organisation to endorse and add its imprimatur to pseudoscientific practices in the name of ‘wellbeing’ is disappointing, to say the least. Especially when some elements within the industry, such as the International Center for Reiki Training, claim Reiki can actually cure cancer. (www.reiki.org/stories/cancer-healed)
“Opening the door to pseudo and unscientific medical treatments, in the name of wellbeing, is simply not acceptable.”
Reiki and reflexology were recently included in the list of therapies no longer covered by the NDIS.
Runners-up for this year’s Bent Spoon were Elle Macpherson for her own treatment of cancer, and specifically her medical consultant Simone Laubscher, the latter claiming a string of spurious medical qualifications. A dishonourable mention went to TV Channel 7 for endorsing astrology, weather control, and unsubstantiated autism treatments.
The Cancer Council WA joins such past winners as Walkley award-winning journalist and UFO proponent Ross Coulthart, former celebrity chef Pete Evans (who has actually won twice!), the ABC, SBS, former MP Craig Kelly, the Australian Vaccination Network, and a psychic dentist.
Merit awards
The more positive Thornett Award for the Promotion of Reason went to Dr Nikki Milne of Bond University. Dr Milne has led a body of work which has resulted in the Chiropractic Board reinstating the ban on spinal manipulation on children.
The Barry Williams Award for Skeptical Journalism is awarded for journalistic work that critically analyses or exposes issues related to pseudoscience or the paranormal. The winner is judged by a panel of Walkley award-winning journalists. This year the award went to the Nine’s Age/SMH senior health reporter Henrietta Cook for an article on controversial treatments for the medical condition ‘tongue tie’ in infants.
Both merit awards include a $2000 prize.
The awards were announced at the gala dinner of the Australian Skeptics’ 40th national convention in Sydney November 23.
UPDATE:
The Cancer Council WA has issued the following statement (published here in full):
“Cancer Council’s mission is to use medical and scientific evidence and best practice to reduce the incidence and impact of all cancers for all Australians.
“A cancer diagnosis can be an incredibly stressful experience for individuals and their families. First and foremost, it is important that Australians affected by cancer seek help from qualified medical professionals and evidence-based treatments that have been through a rigorous and scientific process to make sure that they work and are safe.
“Some people affected by cancer may also find benefit in experiences that help to reduce their stress levels and increase relaxation; however, these should only be undertaken with the advice from a health practitioner.
“The Cancer Council community is generous, supportive and full of volunteers who provide their services free of charge to people affected by cancer. Some of these complementary volunteer services, including reiki and reflexology, aim to reduce stress at a difficult time. There is no evidence that services like reiki can treat or cure cancer, they should only be considered alongside scientifically tested, effective medical treatments, and with guidance from an individual’s treating doctor.
“The information resources provided by Cancer Council are developed and systematically reviewed by cancer care experts including oncologists, hospital pharmacists, psychologists and other qualified, registered health practitioners.
“Cancer Council is aware that there was a discrepancy on the Cancer Council WA website in regard to evidence supporting reiki and reflexology and this has been corrected.”
Mendham pointed out that “The Council does not specify what those discrepancies were, nor does it explain how it came to select reiki and reflexology as the wellness treatments of choice when there are other treatments that could serve the same purpose as these pseudoscientific and potentially dangerous ‘alternative medicines’.”
