Physical, massage therapists make use of telehealth amid COVID-19 - Columbia Missourian

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When you click into the Connective Health Massage Therapy website, a pop-up appears, thanking you for visiting the page. The second line reads, “We are temporarily closed under City of Columbia lock down orders,” and below that, in slightly larger font, it invites visitors to consider buying a gift card.


COVID-19 and the implementation of social distancing have impacted physical and massage therapists just as they have done to many other fields. Although many health care professionals have made the switch to telehealth, physical and massage therapy are very hands-on treatments, and much of the work done cannot be translated virtually.


Justin Obert, licensed massage therapist and owner of Evexia Massage, said due to the nature of his work, he and many of his colleagues are not working on people at all right now. However, he is looking into the possibility of helping his clients virtually.


“I’m with one of my colleagues right now, and we are working on making educational videos and techniques for our clients to kind of do it at home,” Obert said. “It’s something to keep my clients engaged and to let them know that we’re still here, and we still care about them.”


Obert said some elderly clients have reached out to him, but he had to turn them down.


“Some of my clients are just like, ‘come on, can’t you make an exception for me?’” Obert said. “But it’s for myself, for my safety. I don’t want to get sick, so I just tell them that the state board forbids it and I could lose my license, and 'I’m not going to lose my license just for you.' They totally understand.”


“It has slowed down our line of work in outpatient, which is what I do, and in orthopedic outpatient,” Kathy Maxey, a physical therapist at Mizzou Therapy Services, said. “Because they’ve had to cancel so many elective surgeries, and that’s a big group of the people we see, people who are post-knee surgeries and shoulder surgeries and all that.”


Cory Crecelius holds electronic visits with his patients who travel to Columbia for their procedures.

Justin Kelley

Maxey said they are still allowed to see people who are already post-op, but they haven’t had as many because of the canceled surgeries.


“We had some people who were over 60 that we’re trying to go to video and telehealth to work with,” Maxey said. “In the right situation, it works pretty well."


It's not as easy for first-time visits, but for follow-ups, video and telehealth work well because the appointments mostly involve asking patients questions about how they're doing and seeing what's working and what's not, Maxey said.


Maxey also said reviewing the exercises and progressing with them also works well via video conferencing. However, for patients who need more hands-on work, it’s more of a struggle right now.


“We’ve limited the number of people in the clinic, so we don’t have too many people here at one time,” Maxey said. “But we’re also still trying to do therapy for post-op patients, who really are struggling with range of motion, who need more hands-on work.”


Maxey said the clinic is putting together a new telehealth program for people who have had COVID-19 and need help with breathing exercises.


“If they’ve been very sick, even once they recover, they usually have lost a lot of strength and a lot of endurance, and their lung capacity decreases,” Maxey said. “So, we’re putting together a program that we’re getting ready to roll out, where we are meeting with these people through telehealth. We have set up exercises and education for them on how to gradually return to activity and things like that.”


While many physical and massage therapists are struggling to operate amid the pandemic, therapists like Obert and Maxey are trying to make use of telehealth to support their clients. Similarly, clients are supporting their therapists by purchasing gift cards and packages as well.


“It’s just like they’re floating me money to get me by,” Obert said about his clients, who have purchased his massage packages though they can't use them at this time. “I’ve had quite a few clients donate … yeah, it’s kind of a donation, really, at this point. But, they’ve given me several thousand dollars, which is pretty great right now.”