Posted under General & Marketing Massage for Special Populations & Massage for Elders
Hello all,
It seems the issue of providing massage for caregivers in hospice organizations is a bit of a sticking point for many organizations. The points raised by Jennifer and Ann are well-taken and deserve some consideration. I’m sure we can all agree that any caregiver in hospice or long term care give much of themselves physically, emotionally, and energetically. Certainly massage would be an effective way to help them manage the stress and toll of taking care of others. I’ve actually heard from several massage therapists about hospice organizations preventing them from working with staff because of organizational liability issues. I’m prompted to explore this issue. One thought comes to mind. All long term care and hospice organization have a medical director. I’m wondering if that might not be one solution to this issue. I bring it up because one skilled nursing facilitly where I provide Compassionate Touch sessions had their medical director approve my services. I understand that some organizations are more “guarded” than others. But it might be worth exploring the idea of asking the hospice organization about having the medical director approve non-invasive, seated massage for stress management for staff.Â
Have any of you tried this approach? I’d like to hear from you about this issue– what’s working, what’s not. We have so much to offer those caregivers to help prevent burnout and compassion fatigue.Â
Peace and blessings to you,
Ann
Ann on 28 Mar 2009 at 11:11 am #
Hi, I am a MT student with 2 months to go and I have a few personal questions about this field of work with hospice and the elderly and I would like to ask them via e-mail. How can I do that?
Home Care News » Blog Archive » Touching Lives in Eldercare and Hospice » Caring for the Caregiver … on 31 Mar 2009 at 5:28 am #
[...] View original post here: Touching Lives in Eldercare and Hospice » Caring for the Caregiver … [...]
sam leonard on 08 Apr 2009 at 7:26 pm #
I am a volunteer for a hospice in Kansas City, MO. The hospice schedules appreciation days for staff at various care facilities. Employees and volunteers provide staff members with energy work, hand massages, and chair massages. What is the problem?
Mary Kathleen Rose on 09 Apr 2009 at 10:14 am #
One of the central concepts of hospice care involved awareness of the importance of the family as the primary caregivers for the patients. In my twenty years of involvement with hospice, and as supervisor of the Comfort Touch and massage program since 1995, we always include the option to provide touch to the caregivers. With a large staff of volunteer massage therapists, the complementary care coordinator fields requests from the clinical team, to offer Comfort Touch or massage to the patient and/or caregivers. All practitioners complete the hospice volunteer training, training in Comfort Touch (safe, appropriate and effective techniques for elderly and ill), and provide appropriate documentation of their work.
Our medical directors (physicians) give tacit approval for all Comfort Touch therapy, because it is consistent with the standard of care of our hospice, so no individual permission is required.
The hospice mandate is to provide not only for the care of the patient, but for the well-being of the family. The work of the touch practitioners is part of the overall services which include clinical/medical care for the patient, along with the services of the social workers and chaplains, who also tend to the needs of the patient and family.
Eva Pendleton on 09 Apr 2009 at 11:48 am #
Hi everyone,
I was recently hired to start a massage therapy program at a hospice in NY. From the beginning we have planned the program to include massage therapy for patients, family caregivers, and staff. The insurance issues have all been investigated and they are not a problem. We have to have doctor’s orders for patients but not for anyone else.
The best ammunition for you is good research. I would suggest compiling a list of hospice programs that provide massage therapy to caregivers and staff and present it to the decision-making authorities at your hospice. It is possible that they have the wrong information, or that they made a decision based on assumptions rather than facts.
Put our program on your list: Hospice Care Network. And feel free to email me directly with any other questions: ependleton@hospicecarenetwork.org. I would be glad to help in any way that I can.
Eva Pendleton
Mary Rose on 10 Apr 2009 at 10:29 am #
Hospice services are designed to support the patient with medical, social and spiritual support. A key element of hospice care it to support the family who are the primary caregivers of the patient. So, yes, massage for the caregivers makes perfect sense. In our hospice comforting touch is provided to patients and caregivers alike, depending on their needs. Requests for Comfort Touch come from the interdisciplinary patient care team, and assignments are made by the coordinator for complementary therapies. It is important that all practitioners participate in hospice volunteer training. They also need to be trained in safe, and appropriate techniques of touch for the elderly and the ill.
Cynthia on 10 Sep 2009 at 6:12 am #
Interesting blog. I’ve been looking at elder and senior care and keep coming across issues involving denture creams and neurological problems. It seems that some popular creams are involved and lawsuits are beginning to be filed. I found a site that is sponsored, I believe, by an attorney group, but that has some good health and legal information: http://www.denturecreamlawyer.com/ I hope this is of help to your readership.