Working with the Elderly:

I have had several elderly clients and as a group older folk can greatly benefit from massage, but working with older adults has its own issues and challenges. Just as a demarcation, I'm considering "elderly" here to refer to clients who are 75 or older.

In most cases when I've worked with older clients I've initially been approached by one of the clients' children. Usually their kids are the ones who are paying the bills, making the appointments and in many cases have medical and legal powers of attorney. This makes it imperative to not only work well with the client, but with the clients' family. I work to keep the family or the medical professionals who need information on their parents' health 'in the loop'.

Because many of the people in this age bracket have mobility issues, I go to them. They also tend to tire easily and so sessions tend to be shorter: 30-45 minutes on average - and more frequent, perhaps twice a week instead of once. Because of this, and because the elderly are often on fixed incomes I work on a sliding scale, to provide work which is affordable as well as physically beneficial.

Its hard to be more specific with regards to this work because each situation working with the elderly is unique and I have found it to be very rewarding work.