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Outraged...Educating The Masses
How can we educate the general public, the common consumer when healthcare professionals THEMSELVES are ignorant to the benefits of massage therapy??
Case in point, I myself have had fibromyalgia symptoms, disc degenation, loss of cervical curve, stenosis, etc. due to a long standing herniated disc injury/surgery repair numerous years ago. I go every three months to an orthopeadic doctor. To make a long story short, I have ONLY been offered physical therapy as my only course of action, oh and of course, all the pain medications I could ever ask for. The physical therapy did absolutely NOTHING for my muscles as they only focused on my bones. It is my contracted muscles, as many of you know, that are CREATING the problems with my bones. I have gone through many courses of PT before I realized what a waste of time it was. They weren't doing anything for me that I couldn't do at home. Electric Stim and heat applications was all they were doing. (I already HAVE a TENS unit at home and a heating pad)
It wasn't until last year when I became a student of massotherapy and getting some minor work done in practicals did I realize this very concept underlined above. I actually felt so much better, but I needed more.
I went to my doctor to have him write a prescription for massotherapy treatments and to have them approved by workers comp.. A few weeks later I received the approval letter but since the doctors staff are so used to only referring to physical therapy, I got........
Yep, you guessed it. PT sessions, 3x a week for 6 weeks (for a total of 18 sessions)
I was able to have it changed back to massotherapy sessions but was so upset and angry when I finally received my approval letter. My doctor ordered massotherapy sessions only 1 time a month for 6 months (for a total of 6 sessions)
This is completely ridiculous of them to think that this will be of any benefit to me. There is way too much time in between sessions for it to help me!
I will have to tell you that this is a reputable doctor in our area who is well respected in the community. I am both shocked and outraged to think that even the highest healthcare orthopaedic doctors and staff think so little of our profession and what neuromuscular massage therapy can do.
So again, my question remains, how are we supposed to educate the common client when even the healthcare professions refuse to aknowledge us as being an integral part of medical care?
It looks as though I will be seeking out another doctor, but I still welcome and appreciate any and all of you to comment for input and advice
Views: 333
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Caitlin Lemoine on
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Massage just isn't seen as a medical profession. Our schooling in most states is a mere 500 hours. Why should a doctor take us seriously they know better don't they? They had four times the schooling!
That isn't necessarily the case of course but it requires a revamp of not one but several systems to get massage acknowledged. The PTs I know do integrate massage into their practice and some doctors in my area seem to be more open to the ideas of massage helping but they will still send patients to a PT over an MT because they seem more professional/educated I suppose?
It will take time. There are so many negative connotations to massage not to mention we have many practices with no "scientific" proof that they actually do anything besides a placebo effect and while that might attract some consumers, those that believe in the medical field would shun us as quacks. Until there is a bigger base of proven hard facts associated with the benefits of massage that are actually tied to medical cases there won't be acceptance. That base is growing at this time but there is still that attitude that massage is just fluff with no "real" benefit.
Plus we just suck at advertising and selling ourself. We have to convince doctors of our benefits they aren't going to put effort into us and I know I suck at that sort of thing as do the majority of us. I just want to rub people darnit, not work out the politics of the medical field!
I'm just rambling....but i think one day it will work out. We are a pretty new profession here in the states so it will take time.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Chute on
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In my province in Canada we have to complete a couple thousand hours of training. We still face the same challenges because the training is uneven and real health care workers still have much more training than we do. Unpopular idea, but true. I still get called a masseuse. Maybe it's my childbearing hips or maybe I need to switch to Old Spice.
My focus these days is relaxation more than "treatment" per se, so I encounter the misconceptions somewhat less than I used to.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Hinkle on
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You have continued to push the process forward, Laurie and you hit the nail on the button.
Associations, schools and therapists need to help educate the medical profession further. One thing that keeps the PT's in the forefront is they have strong lobby group that they pay to push their agenda and they (the PT's) put money into it. We do nothing like that. Some states pay a lobbyist to approach legislators from a massage veiwpoint but they pale to the PT lobby. I have seen very little for the dollar value so far from our lobbyists.
We, as a profession, are only beginning to organize. This is just another layer of the issues that we face. We have much to do and that is why we must voice these concerns to those that are in position to make these key decisions or unite to form groups that will address them.
Associations could be making commercials that would educate the masses. The commercials could be sent to therapists. Therapists could get on local TV and play commercial to masses locally. There are many things we could do instead of throwing 8 million dollars in the stock market or having meetings in Puerto Rico, Hawaii and such. We need to demand our leaders be frugal and build this profession. The people that serve on boards are usually elected. Ask them how they feel and make sure they vote accordingly. There is much to do.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Erickson on
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Perhaps you should ask the good physician if he truly feels that massotherapy 1x/month for 6 months will truly be of equal or greater benefit than physical therapy 3x/week for 6 weeks. If he truly feels that is the case, perhaps he will explain why he feels this is so.
If that is not how he feels, perhaps he will explain why he deliberately wrote you a prescription for substandard care. ;)
You might refer him to (or bring him a copy of) a study published in SPINE (SPINE Volume 34, Number 16, pp 1669–1684) that found massage to be more effective than physical therapy (and several other forms of treatment) in the treatment of nonspecific low back pain. Perhaps he is already familiar with it? Either way, you have the right to demand a reasonable level of care, and we as a profession have the responsibility of educating the public and members of the health care community.
However, we must learn to approach and communicate with them as professionals, NOT as whiney alt-healers. Medical professionals think and speak in terms of anatomy, physiology, pathology, peer-reviewed research, and so forth. A good (if dated) reference worth studying is A Physician's Guide to Therapeutic Massage (http://www.amazon.com/Physicians-Guide-Therapeutic-Massage/dp/09685...). I have found it very useful in understanding how to communicate with medical professionals.
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Permalink Reply by Laurie Weber on
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Robert, I had no idea that even in YOUR country health professionals look down on our profession, even though you have TRIPLE the hours put in for schooling.
Yes, even here in the States training is uneven, each state is governed by their own requirements and regulations which leads to inconsistencies. If there were at LEAST a base set of requirements for schooling hours all across the states, there would be a more a more consistent program which would give better integrity of our profession. I don't see that ever happening though.
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Good point Caitlin,...yes most schools have 500 hours...Apparently PA, didn't even HAVE schooling until just recently?
Yes, PT's integrate massage in their practice, if you can even call it that....I usually got a whole 3 minutes of it every time I went to PT. Sad, because that was the only real modality they used that could have given me real benefit had they just used that.
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Mike, what about the AMTA and other massage therapy associations that therapists belong to? Isn't part of their job to help lobby to the legislators and educate the public?
If massage therapy were used like it was intended to be, particularly the neuromuscular massage therapy, we would actually be saving the government real money as there would be healthier people and we need to convey this to our legislators!
Mike, I am still a student for now, but once I become a therapist, what are some of the things that I can do to educate the health professionals on down to the general public? I believe that if we start on the higher end (doctors, etc) then they could help us by educating their patients (my thinking is that patients are more likely to listen to their doctors first before their massage therapist) but at the same time we are still educating our clients, thus filtering down to the general public....or do you think we should start higher than doctors and go straight to the government?
I am a passionate and firm believer in massage therapy. I have talked to massage therapists who have been in practice for years who even have the data from their own clients to back up their claims of true and lasting rehabilitation. Their stories are amazing but truly factual. They above all should be the ones to provide this data to whatever organization is responsible for research who could provide this data to the government. I believe it's our duty as massage therapists to get together and insist to our government that we be recognized as an integral part of the healthcare system. Again, if we could prove that we could save the taxpayers and government money for even preventative care and faster rehabilitation, the government would stand up and listen...."money talks' you know.
Just tell me how to go about this and I for one will do it. How can I become involved in this process?
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Jason, my doctor really never even thought of massage therapy as an option and although he was very agreeable for me to try it and very receptive to the idea, he really doesn't know too much about massage therapy and what it can actually do for me. He, like many doctors are of the mindset that PT is the only option.That's how they are trained. I did call and ask his staff why I wouldn't get the same amount of massage treatments as I would have with PT. She said she didn't know and I explained to her that this isn't for a 'spa massage' that it's neuromuscular massage therapy and it's supposed to work just like PT treatments in order for it to be beneficial. She said she had no idea and never thought of it that way before. This is why education of the benefits of massage therapy to doctors and other healthcare professionals is so crucial!
We ARE making strides in our profession though albeit, very slowly. If you can recall, it used to be chiropractors shunned and dismissed massage therapists. Now that they know how the two can be combined for a more comprehensive treatment, many are jumping on the bandwagon so to speak and actually hiring massage therapists and integrating them into their practice. This is a huge step for us!
Along these same lines, I do remember how chiropractors themselves had to deal with the same problems as we face now as they were initially looked down upon as quacks. It wasn't until their patients were actually being helped which then the insurance companies started taking notice and started paying for treatments. This helped develop respect and aknowledgement for their profession. Maybe one day soon we can hope for that.
Thank you so much for the links to these reports. I will definitely download and print them off for my doctor to review. Maybe this is why I am this 'patient' position right now...It definitely offers me a great opportunity to start educating my own doctor.
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Permalink Reply by Laurie on
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Massage is a wonderful treatment - it reduces stress, alleviates pain and is also part of a day at the spa. Some therapists call themselves 'healers', others 'facilitate healing' and another group performs energy balancing. Massage therapy is a very diversified modality, no wonder the medical community has a hard time telling a patient to get a 'massage' because there is no such thing as a generic massage. No two massage therapists will treat a medical condition the same way, some may use energy work, others orthopedic or neuromuscular massage. When a doctor writes a prescription for massage, what is the patient really going to get? It is very confusing.
Gaining respect for what we do is one issue, but we should also question how closely we want to be aligned with the medical community. Do we want to become an overly regulated, treat by the book modality? Do we really want to be physical therapists or nurses? Both professions are trained in massage techniques. Many of us could go that route, but instead choose massage therapy, why?
Massage therapists should honor their individuality as a complementary or adjunct therapy to the medical profession. Most of us enjoy the freedom of performing manual therapy without the supervision of a physician or insurance company, reaching our clients on a different level. Once we become part of the medical care system, we lose a lot of the treatment choices we now enjoy and the massage process becomes very regulated; more restrictive. Do we want our pricing controlled by an insurance company? Do we want to be told that we only have 2 fifteen minute sessions to fix a problem? Massage therapists are massage therapists because they can operate outside of the established medical system, for many clients this is a benefit in itself.
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I don't know what the answer is Laurie and you are right that massage is such a diversified modality, but really. there seem to be two categories though of massage, your basic relaxation or 'spa massage' and that of the therapuetic level. In the therapuetic level, there are more modalities, but the expectations should be one and the same, to get the client out of pain, and to rehabilitate them. It doesn't matter how or what modality is, the end result should be the same. Educating doctors and professionals to know the difference between a 'spa' massage and therapuetic massage is what is important.
About being controlled and regulated by the system and insurance companies, I'm sitting on the fence on that one. While there are downsides to that, the other hand is, if more insurance companies pay for treatments, no matter how small, you would definitely be able to bring in more clients. For therapuetic massage to be any benefit, a client must have a regular course of treatment. What client, especially in THIS economy can afford to pay that from out of their pocket? I for one can't and would not be seeking any treatments if my insurance wasn't paying for it.
In order for massage therapists to gain respect, we may have to give something up. I'm not sure what THAT is, but it has to be better than what is going on now.
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Permalink Reply by Laura Allen on
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The way to educate physicians and other healthcare providers is through sharing research. Your doctor might be more inclined if you would print out some of the peer-reviewed research that has been done on the efficacy of massage therapy for your different conditions and present him with that. Many abstracts are to be found on the Massage Therapy Foundation website.
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I've heard many suggest that the answer is to reject our diversity and medicalize our brand so the public sees us as treatment-oriented to the exclusion of all else. They say our diversity confuses the public (and some say even therapists are confused by our diversity.) I do not support that view. I think our spectrum is a continuum of relaxation and treatment.
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