July Rubdown

Topics:

• Healwell News
• State and National News
• MPower Shut Down
• Baylor Research Article (They like us!)
• Association News
• Upcoming Live and Online events

Healwell's Glossary of the Massage Therapy Profession
ABMP News Page
AMTA News Page
USOLMT News Page

Dept of Ed Asynchronous Ban Public Comment
ABMP Nebraska Call to Action
AMTA List of Resources for MPower Students
Baylor Article Press Release
Baylor Open Access Article
MTF Fundraiser
USOLMT Board
Lorimer Moseley TED talk: Why Things Hurt
Black Massage Therapist's Conference

Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture) is performed by the Skidmore Community College Orchestra and used under Creative Commons licensing. 

Chapters

• 1:15 Healwell News
• 2:17 State and National News
• 4:58 MPower Shut Down
• 7:28 Baylor Research Article
• 9:14 Association News
• 9:57 Live Events

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:41

Welcome to the Rubdown, a news update about massage therapy. I'm your host, kori Rivera, licensed massage therapist and correspondent. Every month, the Rub will bring you news from the world of massage therapy. Today's Rubdown will include news from July 2024. 24. Don't forget, the HealWell blog has a helpful glossary of terms. You can find the link to this guide in the show notes. If we've missed any, please let us know by emailing us at podcast at HealWellorg.

Speaker 1: 1:16

First up HealWell news. The HealWell Service Department provided 937 massage sessions in July to the DC, maryland, virginia area, bringing our total sessions for the year to 6,340. Healwell Homecoming, gold-sponsored by the American Massage Therapy Association, is September 20th through 21st. On Saturday, september 21st, we'll be holding an event called the Grand Noodle, which I'm mentioning again because it's the event I'm most excited for, and now I can report that we have leaders from AMTA, abmp and COMTA joining us. This 3CE event will see attendees talking about the profession of massage therapy. Conversation prompts will be organized around HealWell's three areas of focus service, education and research. The Grand Noodle's purpose is to discuss real solutions to the real problems facing the massage therapy profession. Come, make connections, find support and talk about the heavy things with hope, pragmatism and laughter. Nothing is easy, but we can do hard things together.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Up next state and national news. We have two stories today about the Department of Education. The first story is that the federal rule, known as the 100% rule, that would have limited the length of entry-level massage therapy programs to their state's minimum requirement in order to receive Title IV funding, has been temporarily halted. The injunction was handed down by a court in Texas in response to lawsuits from a company called 360 Degrees Education LLC and others like it, including one from the American Massage Therapy Association. The rule was originally set to go into effect on July 1st and there has been a flurry of activity by both states and schools to prepare for the change. Entry-level education programs have been redesigning their curriculums in order to meet the new reduced-hour rules. Addressing the problem from the other direction, the following states have changed their entry-level education requirements for licensing to at least 600 hours since the start of the year. The states are Louisiana, missouri, north Carolina, new Jersey, colorado, delaware, tennessee, florida and Nevada. Rhode Island has increased entry-level education hours to 800 and has also increased their continuing education to 24 CEU every two years. Previously, their continuing education requirement was 6 CEU each year. Until further decisions are made, schools will be able to continue to operate under the previous rule, which allowed them to accept Title IV funding for programs up to 150% of their state's minimum hour requirement.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Our second story about the US Department of Education is that the department has proposed a complete ban on asynchronous education in clock hour programs. Asynchronous content, which is often delivered as a prerecorded lecture, saw an increase in use during the pandemic. The department contests that student engagement during asynchronous education is not effectively monitored. The department has not made a decision yet and is open to methods other than a complete ban. The public is invited to comment on the proposed rule change. Comments can be made until August 23rd. Directions for submitting comments can be found at the link in the show notes under the heading addresses.

Speaker 1: 4:23

In Nebraska, where massage therapy is licensed as a health profession legislative bill, one would put a tax on massage therapy services. There are no other healthcare professions included in the proposed list of newly taxable services. If you are a Nebraska resident, please visit the ABMP link in the show notes to learn how you can contact your government to protest this change before it goes into effect. The following states have vacancies on their massage therapy boards Oregon, new Jersey and Montana. Please check the link in the show notes for information on how to apply for your board.

Speaker 1: 4:58

Empower Career Training, a national massage therapy education program, officially and abruptly closed on July 19, 2024. Students of the school received a letter citing that, due to, quote, the loss of viable student financing programs in the market unquote the school was no longer able to continue teaching classes and was shutting down. Empower had schools in Virginia, arizona, colorado, illinois, florida, texas, new Hampshire, minnesota and Alaska. The Arizona State Board for Private Post-Secondary Education, which is the government body that oversaw Empower in Arizona, was notified one hour before the students received their email. Schools are supposed to provide 60 days notice of a shutdown.

Speaker 1: 5:39

Empower advertised its services to both potential students and potential employers. It had been working closely with the Hand and Stone franchise. In an interview posted on Hand and Stone's website with Empower CEO Pete Med and their vice president, jeff McGrath, it was stated that Hand and Stone provided quote job opportunities and tuition sponsorship agreements to our graduates. A former Empower student described that students would take out private loans in their name, sign a contract to work for Hand Stone for one to three years after graduating from the program and obtaining a license. Hand Stone would then pay the loan after the therapist satisfied the agreed-upon clock hour requirements. Another student stated that the private loans were issued by a company called MPower Financing out of Virginia. The Arizona State Board for Private Post-Secondary Education's president, kevin LaMountain, stressed that if a loan provider reaches out directly to a student, the student should contact the Post-Secondary Education Board immediately. Students have until July 19, 2025, which is one year from the shutdown to file a claim with the Student Tuition Recovery Fund. If you are an Empire student and are looking for more information, please contact one of the following government bodies Department of Licensing and Regulation, the Alaska Commission on Post-Secondary Education, the New Hampshire Department of Education or the Arizona State Board for Private Post-Secondary Education. The show reached out to Nathan Nordstrom, senior Director of Training at Hand and Stone and Vice President of the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education, but he respectfully declined an interview at this time. This story is still developing and the show will continue to reach out to Hand in Stone for comment.

Speaker 1: 7:29

The University of Baylor published a study titled Prevalence and Determinants of Massage Therapy Use in the US Findings from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey. In the academic journal Explore, the Journal of Science and Healing. The authors of the article are Drs Jeff Levine and Matt Bradshaw. Dr Levine is a professor at Baylor University and Duke University, and his educational history includes religion, sociology, epidemiology and public health. Dr Bradshaw is a Baylor professor that studies health, religion and early life experiences. The study used data from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey, which conducted face-to-face interviews with 27,651 people.

Speaker 1: 8:09

In a Baylor University Media and Public Relations article, dr Levine said what our study shows is that it's probably not helpful any longer to label massage as an alternative therapy, with all of the marginality that that term conveys. Alternative therapy, with all of the marginality that that term conveys. Licensed massage therapists ought to be respected as mainstream practitioners whose profession provides a therapeutic approach not just to address pain and functional challenges, but to foster wellness and overall well-being, physical and emotional. Everyone can benefit from working with a skilled massage therapist. They're hidden gems in the healthcare system. Let us take a moment to celebrate this statement, and now let us not rest on our laurels because, my friends, there is still a ton of work to do. Our next segment is news from the Massage Therapy National Associations. The USOLMT Board of Directors has elected Sharon Sterling to the role of Secretary-Treasurer, positioning the board as 501c6 ready. 501c6 is the tax exemption designation for a business association. Usolmt is still looking for a Director of Advocacy and for state point persons to volunteer.

Speaker 1: 9:39

The Massage Therapy Foundation has released two episodes about K-Series on their podcast, research Perch. The episodes feature Dr Nikki Monk of Indiana University, robin Michio of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and their guest Dr Michael Fleischman from Victoria University in Australia. And last, here are the massage therapy events coming up. If you want to catch a HealWell class, we have oncology classes August 23rd through 25th in Harrisburg, pennsylvania. October 23rd through 25th in Keene, new Hampshire. Healwell's hospital-based massage therapy stewardship is November 5th through 8th in Washington DC. We have scar classes with Kathy Ryan September 21st and 22nd in Fairfax, virginia, during Homecoming, and October 26th through 27th in Santa Monica, california. And, as mentioned before and will be mentioned again, kol Homecoming is September 20th through 21st. I hope to see you there.

Speaker 1: 10:34

Other live events include the American Massage Therapy Association National Convention September 12th through 14th in Tampa. The Massage Therapy Foundation will be having a dance party and karaoke event at the convention on Friday, september 13th, starting at 7 pm. You can purchase tickets online or at the Massage Therapy Foundation's on-site table. Space is limited and tickets go quickly and who doesn't want to see their fellow massage therapists rock out to some karaoke? The FSMTB annual meeting is October 3rd through 5th in Washington DC. The Black Massage Therapist Conference is October 8th and 9th in Charlotte, north Carolina. Early bird tickets are available now.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Laura Mermosley, professor of clinical neurosciences at the University of South Australia, who was a physiotherapist and then a neuroscientist, a pain scientist and a science educator, will be doing a rare tour of North America in September and October. He'll be visiting Vancouver, san Francisco and New York City. You can check out his TED Talk at the link in the show notes and, if you're an early planner, the Massage Therapy Foundation's International Massage Therapy Research Conference, or IMTREC, will be April 27th through 29th in Alexandria, virginia. While the conference usually offers continuing education credits, it is different from the traditional massage therapy conference. Research conferences are the place researchers can present their work to clinicians and other researchers in their field. Instead of hands-on classes or workshop, the event is mostly lectures followed by question and answer sessions In the HealWell community. This month the theme will be neuroplasticity and we're going to have a special community-only edition of Ruth Werner's Stump the Pathologist live class on August 29th.

Speaker 1: 12:13

If you have any national or state level news about massage therapy that you would like to share, please send an email with your news and a link to your source to podcast at HealWellorg. You can subscribe to our Patreon for early episodes and full interviews and you can always join us in the HealWell online community. You can now text the show by clicking the link in the show notes. Each news update, I'll be asking a question and reading responses the following month. This month's question is what are your professional goals for this fall? This has been your July rubdown and thank you for listening.