Article by Eleanor Oyston
There is much to be offered by the massage community to our general population when it comes to health management.
Often clients are given a gift voucher by a friend or a family member because it has become obvious that they are ‘stressed’, anxious, in chronic pain or just exhausted. The hope is that an hour of reconnecting with ‘what is’ will inspire the loved one to take better care of them self.
More and more doctors are recommending massage as a stress management tool and CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) is being talked about throughout the medical and natural therapies communities.
There is active debate around what we call massage for folk with medical problems and James Waslaski, an American massage therapist, argues that we need to use the correct terminology when offering training to massage therapists. Once again the ‘fear’ of triggering a medical emergency during or following a massage treatment and the subsequent litigation is driving the debate, primarily from within the massage or CAM community.
You might be interested to know that, in my experience, the medical community doesn’t think that we can change the body to the degree we imagine that we can and that once a rapport with a doctor has been established, the medical practitioner will encourage all kinds of safe touch (massage, Bowen, reiki etc) for patients with complex medical issues.
The challenges we face as a professional body of massage therapists is how do we provide the highest standards of care to the sickest clients? Can we train massage therapists well enough so that people are never faced with feeling ‘untouchable’?
Just last week, on a Quest for Life program, I met a young father of two who had undergone a bone marrow transplant which meant that he had been in his own bed for less that two months since January this year. This amazing young man continues to be immune compromised and knows that massage helps his emotions, his muscles and his platelet count.
During his much extended stay in the transplant unit of a major hospital he resorted to having a suitably trained massage therapist visit him under the guise of a family friend.
His hematologist wondered why he was seeing such rapid improvement in his patient and the patient could not tell him the truth for fear of compromising the therapist. This young man could hardly wait to tell his story to the team at Quest for Life… .a safe place to share you must treasured stories.
In 2004 Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre (MSKCC) in New York conducted a three year, longitudinal research study on 1290 patients who were connected to their hospital as either an in-patient or out-patient.
The research was published in the highly regarded medical publication ‘Journal of Pain and Symptom Management’.(1)
The findings of this highly regarded research was that following massage patients showed, on average, a 50% decrease in symptoms of pain, fatigue, anxiety, nausea, depression and we know from studies already published (not with the status or size of the MSKCC study) that the benefits of massage for people in hospital are:
- symptom management,
- lowering blood pressure,
- stress and anxiety reduction,
- pain control, and
- an enhanced feeling of well being.
Research is also showing that moderate regular exercise halves the risk of death in women with breast cancer and that the benefit of chemotherapy for the 22 major adult malignancies is estimated to be around 2%.(2)
If these results were published by a pharmaceutical company it would be front page news!
In November 2005 in San Diego, USA, the second Society of Integrative Oncology (SIO) Conference didn’t even debate massage for people with cancer. From my observation it now seems to be an accepted practice and almost every hospital represented at the conference either had a massage unit in full swing or was creating one. A notable exception and disappointment for me was that the only Australian hospital, represented by the oncologist in residence, is not even contemplating the development of a massage facility.
The SIO Conference in 2006 held a Massage forum to discuss how to introduce massage into hospitals and the following guidelines emerged.
- CEO or government commitment to implement massage in hospitals.
- Suitable training programs to ready therapist for establishing the service.
- Establish a pilot program in a major cancer centre with at least 1 full time and 2 part time staff.
(The full time team member is employed as a practice manager, responsible for the entire interface with hospital management and ward staff, scheduling of treatments and supervision of therapists.
Two part time staff will need to be suitably trained, selected by the practice manager and open to working with hospital staff.
All staff employed in the initial team would need to be asked for a long term commitment of at least 3-5 years.)
Once the initial program is established the practice manager would need to expand there role to include training of future therapist in conjunction with established training programs.
Incorporate research goals into treatment programs offered in hospitals. - Expand massage services to include other complementary therapy services such as acupuncture and herbs as well as offering massage treatment to hospital staff.
Note:
World best practice shows that massage staff must be employed and remunerated at the same level as similar service providers in the hospital system e.g. occupational therapists, nutritionists (massage therapist pay the same for there education and continuing education as these professionals).
In conclusion, let me say that we have excellent massage services available in some hospitals, mostly by contractors or volunteers.
I have established, and teach an accredited training program at The Quest for Life Centre; Massage Cancer and More to teach qualified massage, tactile and Bowen therapists how to work with people with cancer and other life changing illnesses. There is also an extension program to further develop therapist skills so that they can work in hospitals, offering medical massage as a salaried part of the health care team.
At this time, in Australia, this is the ONLY pathway that has the capacity to place massage therapists in hospitals and therefore, part of mainstream health care.
Continuing the high standards set by Massage Cancer and More, Gayle MacDonald, the author of ‘Medicine Hands’, will come from America to teach two courses on massage for people in hospital at the Quest for Life centre in March 2008 (please see the advertisement in this edition of Mostly Massage). Gayle has been massaging in hospitals for 15 years and we can learn much for her experience. Also Phase 2 – Massage in Hospitals training program at the Quest for Life centre is written and is ready for peer review by medical and massage educators. n
References:
- Massage therapy for symptom control: Outcome study at a major cancer centre by Barrie R Cassileth, PhD and Andrew J Vickers, PhD; Journal of pain and symptom management. Vol 28 No 3 September 2004
- New frontiers in medicine: The body as the shadow of the soul. By Craig Hassed; proceedings of AIMA Conference August 2007.
Eleanor Oyston is a Cytotechnologist, Massage Therapist and Bowen Practitioner who has had a distinguished career in Pathology and Medical Research. For the last 6 years she has worked with Petrea King at Quest for Life Centre bringing a unique understanding to tactile therapies.
Eleanor developed and teaches her own course, Massage, Cancer and More -“Dispelling the Myths” and publishes her opinions and knowledge regularly in professional magazines.
Eleanor runs a clinic from her home at Burra Creek, NSW, and at rooms in Farrar, ACT. She is also actively involved with John Coleman, Naturopath, developing a homeopathic and Bowen based program-managing clients with Parkinson’s disease.