Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/70551
MASSAGE IN A HOSPITAL SETTING Before the procedure, the patients Continuing Education Grant funding from the Muscular Therapy Institute Foundation has not only helped implement massage into the hospital setting, but it has allowed BMC's Program for Integrative Medicine and Health Care Disparities to create an oncology massage training program, which helps massage therapists get hospital experience. More than 20 therapists, most with less than one year of massage experience, have been trained through the program. The Muscular Therapy Institute was founded in 1974 by Ben E. Benjamin, PhD, and is now associated with the Cortiva Institute. Benjamin is a sports medicine and muscular therapy expert whose life mission is helping people deal with injury-related pain and stress. To keep the massage program at BMC sustainable and continue services beyond the extent of the grant monies, BMC joined forces with the Cortiva Institute. Therapists can earn continuing education credits through the program and guest speakers in the course provide massage to cancer patients and their supporters. were asked to rate their levels of anxiety using a standardized measure. They were also asked to rate their levels of pain on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the worst. Massage seemed to be much more beneficial than empathetic listening for reducing anxiety before the procedure. "The results are statistically significant," Rosen says. "We would like to run a full, clinical trial to study it further and support the provision of massage therapy at the hospital." A DIFFERENT KIND OF TOUCH A third year of grant money from the Muscular Therapy Institute Foundation is now funding a pilot inpatient palliative care massage program. In palliative care, one goal is to help the patient live the best quality of life possible while enduring serious, chronic, or terminal illness. "If massage can help alleviate pain, provide relaxation, or relieve anxiety without the patient experiencing the side effects that can come with medication, then it's worth it," Suen says. For a couple of hours each week, a massage therapist goes to the inpatient floors, gets a list of patients, and goes to their rooms, asking if they want a massage. The therapist spends 15–30 minutes with a patient and customizes the massage session, perhaps massaging only the hands or feet. "The patients love it," Suen says. "Many are older and crave human touch. Not just any touch, but a caring touch." The kind of touch that a patient usually receives in a hospital can be very clinical, such as drawing blood or inserting an IV. Massage provides a different kind of touch, and the massage therapist says patients are 78 massage & bodywork july/august 2012