HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-27-20 Public Comment - R. Esbjornson - Concerns with massage being included in Phase OneFrom:Chris Mehl
To:Agenda
Subject:FW: Concerns with massage being included in Phase One
Date:Monday, April 27, 2020 9:53:37 AM
fyi, letter that massage therapists are sending to health department with protocol and unemployment concerns.
Chris Mehl
Mayor, City of Bozeman
cmehl@bozeman.net
406.581.4992
________________________________________
From: rachel esbjornson [esbjorrd@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2020 9:25 AM
To: Chris Mehl
Subject: Concerns with massage being included in Phase One
Hi Chris,
Thanks for taking some time this morning over the phone to hear my concerns. I sent Amanda Martin your contact
information and hopefully she will send you the collective letter of concern from massage therapists. Here is the
letter I sent to Gallatin Valley Department of Health:
I am writing to voice my concerns with massage businesses being included in Phase One of reopening, along with
other personal care establishments. I own REintegrative Massage, as a sole proprietor. I was pretty confident that we
would be included in Phase Two and was pretty shocked to learn that we had been included in Phase One. I am not
alone. In the last couple days I've had a number of conversations with other massage therapists via phone and
through social media. While there are some therapists that feel completely fine with us being included in Phase One,
my sense is a lot of us are pretty concerned.
I can't think of any other profession that has a practitioner in more direct contact with a client or patient than
massage and for such an extended time frame. Manual PTs come in at a close second, but I imagine many of them
are falling back on exercises and other less hands-on modalities at this time (or they at least have that option to do
so). Massage sessions last anywhere from one hour to two hours and it is impossible to keep a good social distance.
Even with the use of masks, by both the therapist and client, because we don't have access to medical grade masks at
this time, there is still a greater dispersal of airborne particles. At no point are you anywhere near six feet apart and
when a therapist is working on a client's neck the distance between each other's faces is just a little more than a foot.
While I recognize that even in Phase 2 there is still risk in exposure, the chance that one of your clients may have
COVID-19 seems much lower. The probability game is making me and other therapists feel pretty anxious for both
our own health as well as the health of our clients. The additional screening is a good and necessary requirement but
it won't rule out those that are asymptomatic. My understanding is that once we've entered Phase 2 we will have hit
certain benchmarks that indicate that COVID-19 is not as wide spread throughout the community.
I have informed my clients that I will not be opening this upcoming week as I need more time to collect protective
equipment, change physical aspects of my studio, write up protocols, and do more research. My date of opening is to
be determined. I am concerned that now that Gallatin County has said massage therapists can go back to work, we
will no longer qualify for unemployment. I love the work I do and have missed being employed, I would far prefer
to be safely back to work. However, the decision by the Health Department in Gallatin County leaves me feeling
like I may have to open back up, even though I feel incredibly uncomfortable about it, just so I can pay my rent and
put food on the table. Being included in Phase One also has me thinking about the ethical concerns of opening my
practice back up during this time. I am also concerned about the legal/ liability implications.
Today I saw that Missoula is taking a different route than the rest of the State and has placed Personal Care
Establishments in Phase Two. I strongly urge Gallatin County's Board of Health to do the same. I also hope the State
of Montana will consider amending Phase One and moving Personal Care Establishments to Phase Two.
If you have any additional information (i.e. how unemployment plays into all this) can you please make it availableto the public either on your website or through an email.
Thanks for considering my comments,Rachel--Rachel Esbjornson, LMTREintegrative Massagewww.reintegrativemassage.com<http://www.reintegrativemassage.com>
esbjorrd@gmail.com<mailto:esbjorrd@gmail.com>
406-599-5749