California Alliance of
Massage & Bodywork Schools

SB 412 Sample Letters

09 December 2005

Until now Massage Therapists have been able to achieve a license, become gainfully employed, while continuing their massage education. - That could be lost if you don't act now.

Working people who have lost jobs because of reduction in force or other economic reasons have been able to go to massage school, and fairly quickly become gainfully employed while continuing their massage education. - That could be lost if you don't act now.

People with academic learning challenges who are wonderfully skilled with their hands have been able to got to massage school, and fairly quickly become gainfully employed while continuing their massage education. - That could be lost if you don't act now.

People from other cultures, other countries, and those from low economic status have have been able to got to massage school, and fairly quickly become gainfully employed while continuing their massage education. - That could be lost if you don't act now.

Act today to help preserve the ability of these and other to be responsibly and gainfully employed while they continue their massage education. Here's how.

Write to Senator Figueroa immediately and tell her that you want 250 hours Massage Practitioner certification maintained, and tell her why it is important to you and to the profession.

This is just an example of the kind of letter you could write to Senator Figueroa. It's a great idea to personalize the letter, to be specific about your reasons to support the 250-hour Massage Practitioner certificate while appealing to the issues that are important to your representative. The most important part of the letter is to clearly state what it is you want the member to do and why. Make sure you mention the bill number, SB 412. It is also a good idea to emphasize if you are a constituent and to mention larger groups you are a part of and/or directly represent (i.e. massage therapist, professional association, employer, massage student etc). There are many ideas in this sample - pick one or two and use your own experience to illustrate them.

Your Name
Address
Date


The Honorable Liz Figueroa
State Capitol, Box 4601
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Senator Figueroa,

Re: SB 412

I am a __________ (massage student, massage therapist, massage teacher, massage employer, etc.). I am writing to urge you not to phase out the 250-hour Massage Practitioner certification in SB 412. I know you are concerned about helping massage therapists professionalize their industry, and, because the standard in other states with state licensing is 500 hours, you may feel that California should have the same requirement.

Here's how that would affect me and others like me in the massage industry:

1. If the law had required 500 hours of training for licensing when I went to school, I would not even have been able to start the training. I couldn't afford the cost, for one thing, and I had to work to support myself so I also didn't have much time for going to school. I would probably still be in a low-paying job if I hadn't been able to take advantage of the training offered at my massage school. I took a short course, started working right away, and went on to develop my own private practice. Over the years I have also taken a lot of additional training. There are many others like me. Please don't close this door to educational and economic opportunity. Keep two levels of certification and encourage those in the 250 hour tier to continue with their education while they work.

2. Besides the poor and the disadvantaged, in my class there were some students who don't speak English well; they were Hispanic and eastern European immigrants who were working in very low-paying jobs. Because a lot of massage training is hands-on, they were able to take the training in spite of language difficulties, and are now working at much better jobs. It benefits the whole community when people are able to move out of low-paying jobs, and successfully support themselves and their families.

3. Even though SB 412 is a voluntary certification, it is likely to be adopted by cities and counties, becoming a de facto state wide requirement. If the law phases out the 250-hour massage practitioner tier, eventually people like me would no longer be able to take the opportunity that massage schools currently offer, because they would have to have 500 hours of training before going to work. Many wouldn't be able to take the time off from work, or they wouldn't be able to afford the training. Not all would qualify for education grants, and education loans just increase their economic burden. Massage training offers many people a unique way out of poverty.

4. There are two broad groups of massage schools: career schools that offer training in many vocations, adding massage training to their computer, medical office and other courses. They tend to be large, accredited schools who offer Federal loans and grants. The other broad group is proprietary schools that only teach massage. They tend to be smaller schools, many with short programs, and they serve a specific market segment that includes people who can't afford a long course, don't qualify for education grants, have to pay for their own training, are working and can only go to school part time, people who speak English as a second language, kinesthetic learners who can become skillful massage therapists but who are not as successful with academic requirements and others. The majority of massage programs in California are less than 500 hours, many only 200 or 250 hours. Arbitrarily increasing education requirements to 500 hours (arbitrary because there is no outcome-based evidence to support the need for 500 hours of training) would negatively affect the schools as well as their students.

5. There is no evidence that massage therapists are harmful to the public. Incidences of malpractice for massage therapists over the past 10 years indicates there were less than 2 claims per 1000 insured--with less than 1% actually being paid. Medline citations of massage related injuries from 1965 to 2003 indicated only 10 cases in over 12 million reported medical citations. There was no repeating injury patterns or significant statistics to support concern. Therefore there is no basis for increasing education requirements to 500 hours. It would be better to keep the 250 hour tier, which would help to support the wide diversity in massage in California. Instead of phasing it out in 2012, add a continuing education requirement so that graduates with 250 hours of training could begin working, but would also continue their educations and eventually reach 500 hours of training.

I urge you to keep the two different levels of certification and show that you respect the diversity of practice in the massage industry in California.

Sincerely,

Your name


 

© California Alliance of Massage & Bodywork Schools

Websmithing by Keith Eric Grant — The RamblemuseSM
Last modified — 09 December 2005