Abstracts from the Poster Session of the 2016 American Massage Therapy Association National Convention

Abstracts from the Poster Session of the 2016 American Massage Therapy Association National Conventions from the Poster Session of the 2016 American Massage Therapy Association National Convention EFFECt oF MASSAgE thERApy oN thE pRopRioCEptivE SyStEM oF AN AutiStiC Child—A CASE Study Rachel Benbow, LMT, BA, MLIS Introduction: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often have an underdeveloped or dysfunctional proprioceptive system, leading to significant motor skill delays and increased anxiety. There is not enough clinical research to indicate the efficacy of massage therapy on proprioceptive dysfunction in children with ASD, but if shown effective, massage therapy could offer a new intervention for this issue. Objective: The objective of this case report is to describe changes in the proprioceptive abilities of a child with ASD after the application of eight massage therapy sessions over a four-week period. Case Presentation: The subject of the case report was a five-year-old Caucasian female client with midto high-functioning autism and proprioceptive dysfunction. The client’s proprioceptive dysfunction impairs gross motor planning and execution, creating gross motor developmental delays. Intervention: Eight 40-minute massage therapy sessions, consisting of Swedish massage and foot reflexology, were administered twice a week over four weeks. The Swedish massage protocol utilized strokes stimulating to muscle spindle proprioceptive neurons. The foot reflexology focused on reflex points specific to the nervous system. Improvements in proprioceptive abilities were monitored through preand postmassage testing activities that included single foot balancing, jumping rope, back-and-forth ball bouncing, and independent ball dribbling. Interpretation: The client displayed improvement in proprioceptive testing tasks at a much faster rate than her usual learning curve. Proprioceptive progress was demonstrated by gains in gross motor skills pertaining to postural control, overall body coordination, and use of force. Implications: Although positive results were achieved within this case study, more extensive studies are needed to support the efficacy of massage therapy on proprioceptive dysfunction in children with ASD. Further research is needed to determine which intervention in this case study, Swedish massage, foot reflexology, or the combination of the two, is responsible for the observed changes. hoSpitAl-BASEd MASSAgE thERApy MK Brennan, MS, RN, LMBT, Dale Healey DC, PhD, Carolyn Tague, MA, CMT, Beth Rosenthal, PhD, MBA, MPH Introduction: An increasing percentage of hospitals are offering massage therapy to their patients. Massage therapy is the top CAM service provided on an outpatient basis. The Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health (ACIH, formerly ACCAHC) Hospital Based Massage Therapy Task Force was formed to explore the need for a set of standard competencies for the practice of massage therapy in hospital environments, given that no such standard resource exists. A standard set of competencies will be useful to hospitals, massage therapy schools, and massage therapists themselves. Methods: The Task Force designed a survey which was distributed to a convenience sample of hospitals to assess various elements of their massage therapy programs. Results: Thirty-two out of thirty-seven hospitals that received the survey completed it, resulting in an 87 percent response rate. With recognition of a small convenience sample, we believe the high response rate and the extent to which respondents provided in-depth information to the open-ended questions indicates interest in, and a recognized need for, HMBT competencies. Conclusions: The wide range of responses relative to curriculum, orientation procedures, and competencies in general, suggests a need for standardization of competencies to support safe and effective HBMT services for patients. Next steps will be to work with educators and practitioners in the HBMT field to augment the ACIH Competencies for Optimal Practice in Integrated environments (http://accahc.org/ competencies) and develop specific competencies for hospital-based massage therapy.