On 13 May 2026, a regional dialogue for the Americas titled, Innovative Experiences to Strengthen Health and Self-Care through Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine, brought together representatives from WHO, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), WHO collaborating centres, the health sector and academia.
The event was hosted by EsSalud, the government agency responsible for social security and health care in Peru, through the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre for Traditional and Complementary Medicine.
Official opening remarks and institutional presentations were delivered by seven keynote speakers: Dr Henry Rebaza Iparraguirre, Vice Minister of Health, Peru; Dr João Paulo Souza, Director of the WHO/PAHO Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME); Dr Manjulaa Narasimhan from the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre; Dr Gustavo Rosell de Almeida, PAHO/WHO Regional Advisor; Nathália Oliveira Silva, Delegate of the Ministry of Health of Brazil / Integrative and Complementary Practices in the SUS; Miguel Angel Herrera Albarrán, Director of Traditional Medicine and Intercultural Development, Mexico; and Dr Luis Rosales Pereda, Executive President of the Social Health Insurance – EsSalud.
Opening perspectives: traditional medicine in practice
The webinar opened with video presentations showcasing experiences from Indigenous and traditional communities from Bolivia, Mexico and Peru. The videos highlighted intercultural health models and the integration of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) into public health systems to expand health coverage to historically underserved territories. They illustrated the vital role of traditional healers and midwives, the cross-generational transmission of ancestral knowledge and the growing articulation between biomedical services and traditional healing systems. With a special emphasis on intercultural hospitals, community participation, medicinal plants and respectful dialogue between practitioners, the presentations underscored that sharing knowledge strengthens collective capacities to restore balance, improve health and promote community well-being.
Following the opening session, live presentations explored regional perspectives from Brazil, Mexico and Peru to explore how self-care and traditional medicine can strengthen public health, empower communities and support more inclusive models of care.
As Dr José Luis Fernández Sosaya from the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre in Peru noted, these experiences represent some of the region's most rigorously documented examples of using TCIM to strengthen health and self-care.
Across all countries, a clear message emerged: traditional medicine is not being positioned as an alternative to formal systems, but as a way to strengthen them. In the Americas region, the challenge is to consolidate intercultural and holistic care, with the aim of strengthening the healthcare system – making care more preventive, culturally relevant and community-based.
Brazil: community therapy as a public health tool
Dr Adalberto Barreto, from the Brazilian Association of Integrative Community Therapy (ABRATECOM), presented on Integrative Community Therapy – a methodology he developed over 40 years ago which is now used in more than 47 countries. Therapy circles create spaces where participants share experiences and coping strategies, building social support networks at very low cost. Within Brazil’s Unified Health System, the approach has expanded rapidly since its inclusion in national policy in 2017, reflecting growing recognition of community-based mental health and social support strategies within public health systems. By 2025, more than five million integrative practice procedures were delivered annually in primary care, with registrations for this therapy increasing by over 500% in eight years. The main challenge now is equity, with access still concentrated in urban areas such as São Paulo.
Mexico: preserving Indigenous knowledge and reinventing food culture for chronic disease prevention
Dr Hernán García, Deputy Director of Complementary Care Systems, Directorate of Traditional Medicine and Intercultural Development – Mexico, explained how the Dieta de la Milpa programme addresses Mexico’s dual burden of malnutrition and rising noncommunicable diseases. Rooted in traditional Mayan cultivation systems and ingredients, it promotes healthier diets through community-led, intercultural approaches involving local authorities, Indigenous leaders and cooks. By reconnecting food, culture and health, it offers a practical pathway to prevention. The experience demonstrated how traditional food systems can contribute not only to nutrition, but also to cultural preservation, biodiversity and community resilience.
Peru: institutionalizing complementary care and empowering communities to prevent chronic disease
Dr Martha Villar López from EsSalud Peru demonstrated how integration can be institutionalized over time. With nearly three decades of investment, including a research programme dating back to 1998, traditional medicine is now embedded within public health infrastructure. EsSalud’s flagship programme, Reforma de Vida, operating as Prevenir. The programme takes multidisciplinary teams into workplaces to reduce and detect risk factors for chronic noncommunicable diseases. Education cycles are structured around three pillars: celestial nourishment, focused on life purpose and movement; terrestrial nourishment, centred on regional food and healthy diets; and human nourishment, addressing identity, relationships, stress and spirituality. Grounded in Andean cosmovision and the principle of the ayllu, the programme aligns with local cultural values. The programme is based on a holistic and systemic understanding of health, recognizing the interconnection between physical, emotional, social, spiritual and environmental dimensions of well-being. Since 2007, it has trained over 6600 health leaders, certified more than 3100 health-friendly organizations and built alliances with nearly 11 000 employers.
A shared regional direction against a global backdrop
The webinar also included a regional policy panel moderated by Verónica Abdala from BIREME, with the participation of representatives from the Ministries of Health of Brazil, Mexico and EsSalud Peru. The discussion emphasized the importance of integrating Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine into health systems as part of broader strategies to strengthen health promotion, self-care, community participation and Primary Health Care. Panelists highlighted that TCIM approaches may contribute to more preventive, culturally appropriate and people-centred models of care, while also supporting progress toward universal health coverage.
Drawing these experiences together, Dr Natalia Aldana of the TCIM Network of the Americas highlighted the shared outcomes of the interventions discussed. Such approaches strengthen healthy behaviours, social networks and community resilience; they are low-cost, adaptable and enable active participation in care, while showing potential to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases.
Dr Gustavo Rosell de Almeida, PAHO/WHO Regional Advisor on Integrated Health Services and Primary Health Care, emphasized that TCIM can contribute to strengthening Primary Health Care through health promotion, prevention, community participation and culturally appropriate models of care. He also highlighted the importance of governance, research, regulation and intersectoral collaboration to support responsible integration into health systems.
The regional momentum mirrors a broader global shift. Dr João Paulo Souza, Director of BIREME, the specialized center of PAHO/WHO, emphasized that the Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034 promotes a vision centred on people, evidence and integrated use. He noted that health should be understood through the relationships between people, community, nature and spirituality.
Self-care interventions as a critical pathway towards universal health coverage
Dr Manjulaa Narasimhan, Unit Head for Sexual Health and Well-being across the Life-course at WHO, delivered a presentation focused on aligning self-care and TCIM, co-authored by Dr Geetha Krishnan Gopalakrishna Pillai, Unit Head for Research, Data and Innovation at the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre.
WHO recommends self-care interventions as a critical path to reach universal health coverage and traditional medicine acts as a bridge for self-care.Dr Narasimhan explained that traditional medicine contributes most effectively to self-care when embedded directly into primary health care, not operating in parallel, siloed systems. This, she stated, “is possibly the only sustainable way to deliver continuity of care that meets the needs, rights and priorities of communities and individuals”. The Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034 is a move towards a more people-centred approach to health care that champions holistic approaches to health equity and patient autonomy.
The integration of traditional medicine and self-care requires collaboration across disciplines, clear referral pathways, trained health and care workers, and strong leadership that supports integration. The WHO self-care competency framework defines 10 key competencies for health and care workers to support self-care in their clinical practice, supported by the WHO guideline on self-care interventions for health and well-being. These documents help health-care workers safeguard their own well-being and ensure that care is consistent, safe and grounded in shared standards and values.
Together, the discussion through this dialogue points to a fundamental shift in how health systems are designed in the region, and globally, towards models that are more inclusive, culturally-grounded and responsive to the needs of the communities they serve. It is a move towards a system where traditional medicine is respected and responsibly integrated, where self-care provides empowerment and evidence-based care, and where health systems are supportive rather than being distant from these systems.
The event concluded with a collective call to continue strengthening intercultural dialogue, cooperation, self-care and people-centred public health systems across the Americas.
Traditional medicine perspectives from Bolivia, Mexico and Peru - WHO's "Restoring Balance" series
The webinar recordings remain publicly available through the YouTube channels of CABSIN and BVS MTCI Americas.