This is how government grows. The secret to why there is so much regulation, of everybody from real-estate agents to hairdressers and hypnotists, is that many of these groups want state regulation. It's a way to keep out the riff-raff, be able to charge dues and fees, feel professional, keep the price up. Latest example: Massage therapists are begging for state control:
"Being president of the American Massage Therapy Association, I, like many other massage therapists would be very happy to never hear prostitution and massage linked together, you know? It's very offensive, you don't hear other professions linked with that, but you do hear massage and body work being used in that way," says Jennifer Irving, the president of the Indiana branch of the American Massage Therapy Association.
As of January 2005, 38 states, plus the District of Columbia require licenses for massage therapists.
"It defines a standard of ethics. It gives the citizens some protection. It lets them know the person they are going into has some sort of qualification to be touching them and doing body work with them," says Irving.
To get licensed, House Bill 1098 proposes therapists undergo an entry level massage therapy education of at least five hundred in-class hours and pay $150.
Comments
I used to draft licensure legislation for the Indiana General Assembly. The most asinine bill I ever drafted in that arena was one to license hair braiders. Add to your list of pro-regulation supporters those folks who will profit from selling continuing education seminars to the newly regulated "profession."
My God, 500 in-class hours ? I bet school bus drivers are not as well schooled, ... and those are our kids.
Reminds me of a funny story. I know a professional massage therapist who moved to Traverse City, Michigan. She took out a Yellow Page ad. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that the phone book people were going to place the ad under "Adult Entertainment" or some such heading.
Anyway, she started getting lots of calls but not the kind she wanted to receive.
Actually, massage therapy is a very legitimate field and does require extensive schooling in other jurisdictions, not to prevent hookers from hanging out a shingle but rather because these therapists are licensed to work in hospitals and clinics and health spas where it's an issue of liability if they're not qualified and they hurt someone.
It's a field that doesn't get much respect around here. Just ask Janet Carroll, RN, who runs a local training facility and has been advocating for the profession before the legislature for years without much luck.
Reminds me of a funny story. I know a professional massage therapist who moved to Traverse City, Michigan. She took out a Yellow Page ad. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that the phone book people were going to place the ad under "Adult Entertainment" or some such heading.
Anyway, she started getting lots of calls but not the kind she wanted to receive.
Actually, massage therapy is a very legitimate field and does require extensive schooling in other jurisdictions, not to prevent hookers from hanging out a shingle but rather because these therapists are licensed to work in hospitals and clinics and health spas where it's an issue of liability if they're not qualified and they hurt someone.
It's a field that doesn't get much respect around here. Just ask Janet Carroll, RN, who runs a local training facility and has been advocating for the profession before the legislature for years without much luck.