Community,
Commentary and Curriculum for Massage Therapists
How Vulnerable is the Massage Therapy Profession
to Economic Changes? Posted
August 6, 2008
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The decline in
manufacturing jobs in North America and the recessive US economy may
negatively impact extended health care plans and disposable income.
Massage therapy funding from auto insurance has lost ground (in
Ontario), with nurse practitioners and occupational therapists sailing
past with the right to authorize treatment plans. The spas continue to
influence how massage therapists practice and there’s a new influence –
membership-based franchised massage businesses which provide a
consistent, predictable experience, extended hours, coordinated
marketing and operations and discounted massage services.
Let’s step back and
observe our profession’s growth over the last few decades. Massage
therapists have benefited from a strong economy – particularly the
industrial illnesses the industrial age manufactured. Conditions such
as workplace-related musculo-skeletal disorders (WRMDs), repetitive
strain injuries and job-related stress syndromes were borne from our
industrial - and then information - revolutions. In the strong economy
North America has enjoyed since the second world war, North American
workers have had access to generous employee benefit plans,
comprehensive provincial health care and worker’s compensation plans,
and auto-insurance funding for rehabilitation.
Add to this a rise
in popularity of massage therapy and other forms of complementary and
alternative medicine practises, cutbacks in funding for services
normally covered under provincial health insurance (such as chiropractic
and physiotherapy), and the increased regulation of massage therapy in
more provinces and states, and we see the potential for tremendous
growth in the demand for massage therapy.
However, there are
storms emerging, metaphorically, at the borders of the massage therapy
industry. There is rising demand by the public and government agencies
for health professionals to work from evidence-based best practices;
economic markers such as house and automobile sales, the plummeting US
dollar and Canadian consumer debt load signal problems ahead for our
economy; regressive changes in extended health plans and other work
benefits; struggling massage therapy professional associations, where
low membership equals hamstrung advocacy and promotion; the advancement
of other health professions towards degree-level education and the peer
pressure created by this; and the emerging strength of the spa industry
and its impact on how massage therapists practice. These are just a few
of the factors affecting the outcome of the massage therapy profession
in the years to come.
There are some
opportunities too. Potential for integration into complementary and
alternative medicine wards in hospitals; the stress and strain of the
information age and what on-site (chair massage) business models can
provide; greater regulation and training in the spa industry; movement
by massage therapy professional associations and regulatory bodies to
pool knowledge and resources and improve cross-industry standards; the
advancement by a small group of dedicated colleagues towards increasing
research literacy and practice; and the opportunity to tag along with
complementary industries - such as health and fitness - that add quality
to the lives of citizens and will be well-funded by the baby-boomer
generation. The membership-based massage franchises can be helpful
in bringing a consistent product and image to the industry, and
supplying practitioners with much needed support in promotion and
business operations.
In our next
segment, we'll examine massage practitioner incomes and injury
rates.
© 2008, Donald Q. Dillon, RMT. All Rights
Reserved.
No part of this article may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the author.
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