Foundation Funds Chair Massage for Cancer Patients

Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, had offered chair massage to patients staying in its Cancer Center since 2001. But there was a big piece missing: When patients checked out of the hospital, yet still had to return for radiation and chemotherapy treatments, they were no longer eligible to receive massage. It was an oversight noticed by many patients who appreciated the stress- and pain-relieving effects of the massages they received during their hospital stays.

So, staff in the Cancer Center’s rehabilitation department applied for and received a 2005 Massage Therapy Foundation grant, allowing them to pilot a chair-massage program for outpatients only. The program, which ended in August, was such a success that the hospital has continued to fund it.

“We had an average of 83 to 90 percent report of excellent,” says Tara Ballard, an exercise physiologist and the manager of the center’s rehabilitation department, based on questionnaires that patients filled out pre- and post-massage.

The $2,570 foundation grant allowed the center to hire one massage therapist to offer 15-minute chair massages to outpatients, one day per week.

The grant also paid for oncology training for hired and volunteer therapists participating in the program. “It’s a light, therapeutic touch … focusing on the neck, back and shoulders, but with an understanding of the patient’s existing condition,” explains massage therapist Wanda Gaskins, who joined the study project in February and still works at the hospital.

The study provided 98 chair-massage appointments, with some patients receiving massage more than once. It was the first massage for 30 percent of participants.

According to Ballard, the most common reasons for seeking the massage were pain, fatigue and anxiety. Overall, patients reported an average of 75-percent improvement in pain and fatigue, and a 79-percent improvement in anxiety.

“Emotionally and physically, for reducing tension and pain, [the chair massage protocol] is very responsive,” says Gaskins.

“As a therapist working with a range of people who don’t have cancer, or [who are] well or healthy, to working with the cancer patients, the rewards are just great,” she adds. “I truly see an impact and it reinforces my reason for doing the work.”

Ballard says she’d like to see the program expand to give massage to center caregivers and patient families, and to be able to provide half or full-body table massage to outpatients. But the next goal, she says, is “to give the massage to patients while they are receiving their treatments.”

— Kelle Walsh