The future of Massage

Therapy

- Inclusive acceptance by mainstream medicine

- Standardized level of national competency
- Inter-professional education within health care
- Involvement in Collaborative Health Care Teams
- Application of new modalities for massage therapy
- The latest research being done in massage therapy
 Inclusive Acceptance by the
Federal Health Care Ministry for
Massage Therapy
 Percent of clients whom solicited the services of massage therapist with out
the knowledge of their family doctors is quite high.
 The significance of that fact is that those visits are off the radar of the
mainstream medical system and thus not rightfully credited with rendering
benefit to the public.
 Those clients which are covered by private insurance providers may not feel
the need to inform there medical doctor about massage treatments they are
getting.
 Realization of need by the federal ministry will assist in inclusion of
massage therapy with general health care as it is in British Columbia.
 Standardized Level of National
Competency

 Currently standards for ethics and practice only exist in three

provinces to date. The rest of the provinces and territories are all in
various states of implementation for these standards.
 The intention is to eventually have national standards for practice
and examination to remove inter-provincial barriers to practice
 This will facilitate the portability of the profession throughout the
country with only the smallest of barriers that of registration.
 Currently the Canadian standards of education for massage therapy
are some of the highest in the world.
 Inter-professional Education within
Health Care
 Education within the professions about what skill set each health
care professional group can bring to the table.
 The integration of a variety professionals to facilitate a multi-
discipline approach to client centered health care.
 This model has been seen to be very responsive to the needs of
people and quick to resolve pathologies from a multiple view-point
perspective on rendering care. Successful in USA & Europe.
 The understanding of skill sets and where overlap of knowledge
begins and ends represents the common ground between groups.
 These shared areas of knowledge must not be perceived as areas of
conflict but points of connection where team building can take place.
 Involvement in Collaborative Health
Care Teams
 There are many forms of collaborative health care. Several are referred to
as parallel, integrative, interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary.
 Typically for Massage therapist these teams involve chiropractic,
physiotherapist practitioners and we have had a long standing collaborative
relationship.
 The intention for public health care is that GP doctors and specialists along
with nurses, nurse practitioners and therapists work together in a client
centered environment.
 In the last federal minister’s report, intended to direct the provincial medical
systems talked about implementing collaborative team based health care.
Regrettably never once did it mention massage therapy as a profession to
be included with these teams.
 The governing bodies for massage therapy within each province and
territory are the advocacy groups which are pursuing the task of shifting
these paradigms within the medical community in general and the federal
government in particular.
 Benefits of Massage Therapy throughout
Health Care

 More and more, massage therapy is being recognized as a

beneficial aspect of health care regimes in supplementary areas of
health care.
 Behavioural disorders have many successes with massage therapy.
 Many benefits of massage therapy in the area of palliative care have
been researched and documented.
 Cancer was once thought to be a contraindication to massage
therapy. Credible experts and numerous studies continue to dispute
the original thought that massage therapy facilitates the spread of
cancer.
 Behavioural Disorders
 Massage therapy is extremely beneficial for people with autism spectrum disorder
(ASD) as it addresses several of the associated symptoms
 Anxiety – a great deal of anxiety is associated with ASD. Massage therapy can
be used as a relaxation tool to reduce much of this anxiety.
 Muscle tone – associated with the diagnosis of ASD, hyper- and hypotonic muscle
tone is very common.
 Muscle tension – the consistent and unnatural positioning of the body that is
characteristic of ASD can cause a great deal of muscle tension and pain.
 Tactile sensitivity – many ASD sufferers display unfavourable responses to touch.
This adverse effect can be desensitized gradually through massage therapy.
 Palliative Care
 When terminally ill, non-medical therapies provide comfort and have
a positive effect.
 Massage therapy provides a sense of connection to others
 Touch has been known to create a rise in BP in comatose patients
and break through the non-verbal state associated with late stage
Alzheimers diease.
 Massage therapy increases general circulation to an area.
 Massage therapy may not only decrease pain and tension, but it
may also provide a distraction to pain in other areas of the body.
 When massage therapy is an essential part of treatment protocol, it
has been reported that the demand for pain related drugs has
decreased.
 Cancer and Massage
Therapy
 At a time when support is critical, many cancer patients reported
feeling abandoned.
 Most schools of massage therapy taught that cancer was a
contraindication for massage.
 Oncology massage is non-invasive and specifically adapted for
people of all ages and types of cancer.
 Acceptance of massage therapy for cancer patients from medical
professionals has been an ongoing, educational process for the
medical institutions, physicians and oncology massage therapists.
 Massage provided by a therapist properly educated in oncology
massage therapy can help bring comfort and improve the quality of
life for cancer patients.
The Future of Massage
Therapy

The future of massage therapy lies in your hands.