What About Grandma?

Geriatric massage is about helping the person age better.

My beautiful grandmother resting from her hike in southern Germany.

Geriatric massage. What is it? Not many people talk about it but it is a rising demand in our society. The baby boomers are entering their most crucial stage of life in a healthcare sector trying to keep up. Put simply, geriatrics is the study of health impairments that happen because of changes within the body. Simple, right? Not so fast.

Seniors tend to fall into three basic groups:

  1. Robust – typical middle-aged clients free from serious health impairments leading healthy and physically active lives.
  2. Age Appropriate – those suffering from age related illnesses, such as diabetes, arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, and heart disease. Geriatric massage naturally improves circulation of lymphatic fluid and blood.
  3. Frail – seniors in this group look and feel fragile to the touch. They tend to fall and suffer from broken hips, deep bruising, and effects from being on a cocktail of medication. Massage work focuses on helping a weakened body maintain, or sometimes regain, functions essential for general well-being. In fact, this is a massage goal for any age group. This means that despite the many cautions to which massage is subject, there are very few true contraindications. Sessions are shorter in length for this population, usually 30 minutes.

I think about geriatric massage in this way: it is not so much about “fixing” issues as it is about helping the person “age better.” Massage increases comfort, decreases aches and pains, relieves highly annoying issues such as restless leg syndrome and keeps muscles long and loose. Not only does this help the overall body internally, touch also keeps people connected. The aging process is not fun in any way, it’s hard work, and tends to increase internal feelings of alienation and isolation as once proud people are examined, poked, and prodded at will.

My lovely grandma, pictured above, has since passed. She was a proud German woman with a ornery personality who was fiercely flirtatious and danced into the night. She was not a “touch” person. At the end of her time here her body ached as it was shutting down. She would have me massage her legs for great lengths of time, the only thing that helped her calm down inside and relax. Those were amazing bonding moments for us. Massage not only connected us on a deep level, it helped ease her into her passing. That’s powerful!

The senior community is a group near and dear to my heart. I enjoy working with them both in my place and on-site. Some struggle with mobility and it’s my pleasure to work with them where they are at, be it in a retirement home, their own house, or a hospice setting. Truly, every person benefits from massage, from babies in vitro to end-of-life adults.

See you on the table!