Protective equipment and empty waiting rooms: Massage therapy in the new economy

The province has hit the second phase of the reopening plan and on Tuesday, massage therapists are among those allowed to go back to work.

Cathedral Sports Massage will have its doors open for the first time in weeks but the experience is going to be a lot different for clients.

Owner Courtney Probst said for one, clients will be asked to stay in their vehicles until they’re called for their appointment.

“There’s going to be no use of the waiting room at all, just for ease of social distancing as well as keeping the disinfecting area as small as possible,” said Probst.

Clients will also be asked to sign a waiver saying they aren’t sick and haven’t been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19. They’ll also be encouraged to pay using eTransfer.

“ETransfer will really just decrease the amount of time the people are in the common area so they can just come straight into their treatment room, get their treatment, eTransfer us, and then go straight out. There’s no need for them to loiter around in the waiting room,” said Probst.

There are other, smaller changes as well: Clients will be asked to touch as few things as possible, they’ll be asked to use hand sanitizer as soon as they walk in the door, and they’ll be asked to put their clothes in a sanitizer bin during the appointment instead of just hanging them on the wall.

Massage therapy, by its nature, is a very close-working environment between the therapist and clients so the therapists have to wear full personal protective equipment (PPE) at all times. That includes medical-grade masks, safety goggles or glasses, and an apron.

“The medical-grade masks was something that I struggled with (obtaining), just because there’s a shortage out there and you don’t really want to take them away from the people who need them either,” Probst said.

“But in order to keep ourselves and everybody safe, we did what we could and we did end up securing some and we hope to have a more reliable source going forward. And we’ll just continue to, hopefully, have masks on hand so we can continue to be open.”

Probst said the staff has been doing a lot of work on learning how to properly wear the PPE and how to take it on and off effectively.

In the first phase of the reopening plan, some businesses didn’t open right away either because of concern from workers or a lack of proper equipment. Probst said she wanted to open on the first day of the second phase solely because her employees wanted to get back to work and wanted to serve clients.

“Our clients, they rely on us — especially (because) we do have a lot of essential employees that come to us for treatment. So our poor nurses that have been working their butts off haven’t been able to come in for their regular massages that they typically do,” said Probst.

While Probst personally would have liked there to be more time between the first two phases, she said she hopes everything will work out with this phase and they can keep going.

“Overall, I think the government is doing their best to try and give us as much support as they can even though I know this is completely uncharted territories for them, just as it is for us,” said Probst.