Massage Therapy at UCLH London
UCLH London is looking for volunteers to offer hands-on therapies for their staff. Might you be able to help?
ThinkTree recently spoke to their Staff Wellbeing Officer Amanda Tata to find out more about what UCLH is doing to support its staff and how she became involved.
UCLH (University College London Hospital) is a major teaching hospital. It has roots all the way back to 1834 when it was founded to provide clinical training for London University medical students. It has a solid history of providing complementary therapies for its patients, but this came to a grinding halt in the face of Covid-19.
However, the hospital recognised the importance of staff wellbeing and care over the last year and has two ways that it supports it staff with complementary therapies. With senior management actively supporting and using the services, UCLH have set up a two-roomed ‘spa’ in its buildings close to Oxford Street for staff. They have also instituted a roving massage service that visits wards. Therapists offer a wide variety of massage services from Shiatsu and Reflexology to Indian Head Massage and Biodynamic Massage.
Amanda is tasked with running the service. “I love the idea that I can bring massage to staff, that they are ‘are allowed’ to look after themselves. Senior management at UCH recognise the benefit of staff taking 15 minutes off on ward for the roving service.” In the spa, bookable by an app, staff book for an hour’s appointment and appointments get booked up quickly.
“We use a short consult form in the spa, allowing staff a good 45 minutes of treatment. Some staff will come in after their shifts and some come in on days off and weekends when it is quieter especially to have their treatment.”
Amanda began as a volunteer herself 12 years ago after training in massage. She was originally a picture framer and had her own shop until 2000, when she decided she simply did not want to run a shop anymore. She wasn’t sure what it was she really wanted to do so went into what her husband called “active research” – trying things out. She tried jewellery making and she tried a basic massage course. Not being particularly ‘touchy feely’ at the time she wasn’t drawn to couch type massage but came across pioneer David Palmer teaching onsite chair massage and starting taking massage into the corporate sector, working with major TV companies and corporations. Having said that, she also trained with Narenda Mehta, well known for bringing Champissage training to London. As she got a little older Amanda decided to learn reflexology – and deliver therapy whilst being able to sit.
She had also been volunteering at UCLH. What she found giving reflex treatments to patients is that they wanted to chat to her – she wasn’t a medic, she wasn’t family – and in the client-facing position that reflex promotes, patients opened up and offloaded. Amanda “was getting something that money can’t buy” and patients loved the service. “Touch therapies really do improve people’s mental health”.
Roll forward onto Covid and Amanda was asked on 1st June 2020 to get a staff service up and running. “It was one big learning curve!” says Amanda. “We would really like to be offering staff more treatments – either on the wards in 15 to 30 minute slots or in the spa as 1 hour treatments. We are open to any kind of massage. We ask therapists to offer three hours per week which can be daytimes, evening or weekend. It’s part of my job to supervise and provide support. We do provide travel expenses and lunch money for volunteers.”