Whay harm can you do to me ??

[Spencer Krueger]

The question of insurance for therapists is a relatively common one on these forums.

But if you were massaging me and things were to go so pear shaped that you would need insurance to fall back on when i get nasty and sue you.

Just to keep it simple lets assume that you have given me a swedish massage.

What on earth can you do to me that would cause me harm ???

 

[Jackie the Peace Maker]

A solicitor would find something! These greedy money grabbing Accident Claims Solicitors are adept at doing this....they would say that the therapist touched the patient in the wrong place, in the wrong manner, said the wrong thing........and hey presto, the patient is traumatised for life! They keep having flashbacks, they will never get over the after affects of this Swedish Massage. A big payout is needed.

What a terrible situation we all find ourselves in. I did a course on Laughter groups, and became a Qualified Laughter Leader. Laughter is a wonderful thing and I began to take laughter groups....we all had a geat time. Then I discovered that I needed insurance as somebody might injure themselves while laughing and sue me. I was so disillusioned I gave up the group. I know of many youth groups who have had to close down because of similar problems with huge insurance premiums. Unless we can change our current "sueing culture" we are always going to have problems like this.

Love
Angela xx

 

[liteInogginef]

What could a Swedish massage to do you? Well to feed a neurotic mind, off the top of my head... [sm=scratchchin.gif]a bad masseuse [sm=devil-smiley-002.gif]could cause bruising. They could transmit a contagious skin disease from one client to another, or from themself, if they were not checking for contra indications nor observing correct hygeine practice. If they didn't check for contra-indications at all, they could exacerbate a pre existing condition, espeically total contra indications (where you're not supposed to massage at all). They could make a varicose vein worse... ummm raise the blood pressure with a hypertensive... we're not supposed to do abdominal massage on pregnant ladies... if a client'sallergic to nuts and we didn't check, we could kill them as most of our oils are nut based. !!! Ok, that's a bit extreme...

[sm=sandrine.gif]For the good therapist, insurance is alsoto protect themselves from stuff a client could fabricate or from accidents.A client could claim we did not observe the data protection act....through mis management of records. It could even just be that a client's expectations weren't met. Accidents can happen, say the couch collapsed (never heard of that happening) or the light fell off the ceiling on top of the client... or they fell down the steps... all of these things could prompt a client to sue their therapist.

Essentially, in this world moving more and more to liable court cases, a therapist would be mad not to have insurance.

But you're right, on thewhole, it's a pretty low risk therapy.

 

[ezpaced]

If a therapist feels a lump deep in the client’s calf – is it a tear in the soleus muscle, or is it deep vein thrombosis? DVT is probably the most important contraindication to massage; it is discussed in Mel Cash’s book ‘Sport & Remedial Massage Therapy’.

Incidentally, in response to ‘AvalonDove’, I think I should point out that although bruising may be a sign of a bad therapist, this isn’t always the case (at least as far as ‘remedial’ massage is concerned). Quoting Mel Cash again:



Alan

 

[Wesley M]

Good point, Alan andI think there's a distinction here between Swedishand Sports massage types. I think Mel Cash is talking about sports therapy rather than Swedish. Sports goes a lot deeper and you're right, I've been known to leave small bruises after pressure pointing - without ice even if you really knead the area, it can bruise. In my experience, Swedish shouldn't really leave bruises as it's a lighter massage than sports.

 

[kitten kong]

Let me put the cat among the pigeons here: if you want documented cases of harm massage can course, the simple answer is - very little harm!

This matter has been and still is, debated to death in the US where massage in most states, is a state-regulated profession. There is a massage body that goes round lobbying for state regulation because massage by unlicensed practitioners causes harm - but it really cannot produce evidence for such reported harm. Examples have been given above by members of what could potentially go wrong, but in reality... If the body were so easily harmed, we would have all been locked up ages ago. In support of the argument that there is little injury caused by massage practice, one Keith Grant did a search of MedLine, a database of worldwide medical journals to find how many instances of harm had been reported. The answer - very very few. Only 11 cases in the years from 1965 to 2003. (A copy of his findings can be found here: [link=http://www.ramblemuse.com/articles/medline_massage_injury.pdf]http://www.ramblemuse.com/articles/medline_massage_injury.pdf[/link] )

In simple terms - massage is quite safe.

Now I sit back and wait for the arrows to fly....

 

[Matthew Gilb]

RE: INSURANCE
can anyone give me a guide as to which insurance one should have, and how much is it
many thanks

 

[Shae]

In response to everyone, I would totally agree that massage is a very low risk therapy and as such insurance comps will charge (generally) the lowest premium available to cover this (obviously this depends on the massage type) however, as was pointed out above, the insurance is not just there to protect you in case you cause injury but also to protect you against all manner of things!

You can't cover every angle and if a client slipped on a loose step as they got to your doorstep they could sue. Indeed there are FAR more cases where a therapist has been sued for accidental injury or damage as opposed to treament causing an injury.
as society becomes more and more claim crazy (sad but true) therapists have to protect themselves against any eventuality these days.

I even know of a hypnotist who had a claim made against him by his patient as he alleged that not only did the hypnotist NOT stop him from smoking, he is claiming that he now smokes MORE because of the failed treatment! Now obviously this issue is not likely to ever get to court, but the legal fees & costs incurred so far by the hypnotist have exceed £18,000!!!
Now if this individual did not have insurance, they would have had to pay that out of their own pocket in order to defend themselves.
Now, ok, insurance is getting more expensive these days but i would rather fork out £100 a year and know that if the worst happened, my wallet would stay firmly in my pocket!


CHID, in reply to your request I could offer you the name of the company I use, but do not want to look like i am plugging them!
If you want to pm me i would be more than happy to tell you, or you can do a search on one of the threads (prob business development) and i'm sure quite a few threads will come up with companies that people have mentioned. (i'm sure i have mentioned mine at soome point!)