Assessment & medications

I know I said that last week would be the last post for Intermediate massage for a while, but there are two things that I need to work through with you.

Firstly, the Intermediate massage assessment has been posted.
Have a look through the assessment & make sure you understand what you'll be assessed on. The most significant thing to realise which I talked about briefly during an elluminate session week before last was that you will need to be medication savvy. In your assessment if a client presents with a set of medications you must be able to determine the actions of these medications and the implications of these to massage practice.

Given that there are no good resources for this which relate medications to massage practice, I've suggested that it's a good idea for us to develop a quick reference sheet.

Some people have said that they would be happy to learn how to edit wikipages so that we could build a page on Wikipedia. Others have said that they would prefer to build the content on a Google doc. The wiki page option seems clearly better in the long term because the material that you create can be developed on on an ongoing basis which is clearly what is needed. If this is in the too hard basket for you, I've created a google document which you can use in the meantime. I'll then transfer the content to the wikipage.

There are free wiki-editing workshops which are run from time to time at Otago Polytechnic. I'll keep you posted as to when they are.

Here is a link to Massage, medications and interactions. On this page you will find a link to the process you should go through to find out about medications, and a link to the wiki page with content. There are also videos describing how to use and contribute to the project.

Here's a link to the Google document.

Week 5

There will be no new material introduced for Intermediate massage for a while.

Now is a good time to review what you have learnt so far. We have covered the following subjects. All of it may be part of the final theoretical exam at the end of the year.

• Palpation
• Local Adaptation Syndrome (LAS)
  
• Pain
• Fascial adhesion
• Subjective assessment
• Upper crossed/lower crossed syndromes
  

I recommend reviewing the material by firstly reading through it, clarifying anything that you do not understand fully, and making notes of the main points. These notes can be used as study notes in the final exam.

Secondly I recommend considering how the material may be integrated into your normal massage process. Some examples follow

• Subjective assessment - print off & regularly use and apply the subjective assessment process that you've been given in your massage process.
• Reflect on the material on pain and how it relates to your subjective assessment findings.
  
• Look out for upper-crossed and lower-crossed syndrome when assessing your clients, and take this into consideration when developing your treatment plans
  
• When interpreting your palpation findings, consider how what you're feeling applies to LAS
  

Week 4 - Subjective Assessment & basic postural analysis

This week in Intermediate massage, you'll be learning about subjective assessment for massage therapy, and basic postural analysis. This will complete your theoretical learning relevant to assessment at this level.

Weekly tasks

• Practice, practice, practice - The main focus of the week is to practice the techniques that Ash has showed you in class over the weekend.
• Read through this Subjective assessment protocol for massage therapy.
  I strongly recommend you print it off (theres a link on the left hand side if you scroll down to a "printable version"), and keep it at hand for reference during your client interview phase of your massage sessions.
• Read through this learning module on postural analysis. Make sure you understand the essence of the section on postural & phasic muscles & the muscles involved in upper-crossed and lower-crossed syndromes.
  

Week 3 - Pain and Fascial adhesion

This week we'll have a closer look at the factors that underly Local Adaptation Syndrome - pain and the pain spasm cycle and fascial dynamics.

This will lead into a complete subjective assessment process for massage therapy which we'll consider next week.

Tasks for the week

1. Read Mosby's Fundamentals of Therapeutic Massage - Chapter 5, pg 164-190
   If you don't have the most recent edition, these are the sections on indications for massage.
   
   
2. Read about Fascia
   
   
3. Elluminate session was held on Wednesday 13th August, 2008. Some of the material in the session was not recorded due to the use of copyrighted images.
   Subject matter
   
   • Pain
   • Fascia & fascial adhesion
   • Medications & assessment
     

Week 2 - Palpation and Local Adaptation Syndrome

How can I improve my ability to feel what's happening in the body?
How can I make sense of what I'm feeling?

These are the questions we're going to start to answer this week.

Tasks for the week

1. Read Local Adaptation Syndrome
   
   
2. Read the first two sections of Palpation - What is palpation, and Foundations of Palpation.
   The third section of this palpation resource is designed to be a reference for your study through your Intermediate massage course, and for further ongoing study within and without of this programme.
   
   
3. Developing palpatory ability
   Over the next couple of weeks, try this exercise a couple of times a day. Get a phone book and a 10c coin. Try placing the 10c coin under 10 pages of the phone book, then shut your eyes and see if you can feel precisely where the edge of this coin is. Gradually increase the number of pages. As your palpatory ability becomes finer you should be able to feel the coin under more and more pages. Once this becomes too easy, try the same exercise with a hair from your head (you might want to start with 1-2 pages for this)
   
   
4. Mid-block tutorial - 10:00am - 12:00
   In this mid-block tutorial we will discuss local adaptation syndrome further, and how it relates to palpatory findings.
   
   We will also introduce two new palpatory techniques - scanning and drag technique. For those who cannot attend, this tutorial will be fed into elluminate, and you will be able to hear what is being said via this link. We will also video the techniques and will send you a link.
   
   Ruth will be with you from 1 - 2pm. Again this will be made available through elluminate and/or video if that is more appropriate to the content.