Source : the age
Authorities are receiving dozens of reports of rape and serious abuse by massage therapists, but masseuses still don’t need to undergo police checks, be registered or have any formal qualifications.
In the past five years, at least nine Victorian massage therapists have been convicted of rape or sexual assaults, others face serious charges over alleged sex crimes, while another 23 have been hit with permanent or temporary bans for abusing their patients.
High rates of sexual assaults committed by massage therapists are leading to calls for greater regulation over the industry.Credit: Adobe Stock
Health authorities say the true level of sexual assaults and misconduct in the sector may be higher due to the largely self-regulated nature of the industry, confusion over who can take action against rogue therapists, and the difficulty that many distressed victims face in reporting offences.
Australia’s health ministers have ordered a review into the assessments used to determine when a health profession poses a high risk to the public and thus warrants greater oversight. The review will consider whether to expand national regulation to include massage therapists after years of industry demands for greater controls.
The Health Complaints Commissioner (HCC) is responsible for investigating unregulated health services in Victoria. In the past five years, it has received 57 complaints containing allegations of sexual misconduct against massage therapists. This was the highest complaint rate of any non-registered health service provider.
Over the same period, the HCC issued a combined 105 interim prohibition orders against 18 massage therapists. These orders prevent therapists from seeing patients for up to 12 weeks at a time while investigations are undertaken. For some masseuses, multiple consecutive temporary bans have effectively resulted in years-long bans.
Five massage therapists were also permanently banned from the industry after receiving prohibition orders. Some of these individuals have faced criminal prosecution.
A male massage therapist was convicted of sexually assaulting a client during an October 2020 treatment at a Melbourne CBD shopping centre clinic.
Later, the man applied for a working with children permit so he could continue working as a sports trainer. Even after the permit was rejected because Victoria Police flagged issues, the man unsuccessfully appealed.
A sports coach was also convicted in February 2023 of sex crimes while providing therapeutic massages to a teenager in the course of his coaching duties.
Health Complaints Commissioner Adjunct Professor Bernice Redley.Credit: Jason South
Almost one in four complaints raised with the HCC about massage therapists include allegations of sexual misconduct. Health Complaints Commissioner, Adjunct Professor Bernice Redley, said there were difficulties with oversight systems that relied on people to come forward and know where and how they can make a complaint.
“The numbers that we’re seeing have been reasonably persistent over a number of years, and that’s concerning – any sexual boundary violation is a concern, and that’s something that we take really seriously,” she said.
Redley said the HCC would sometimes learn via the media that police had charged massage therapists, as they had not been contacted by any alleged victims.
“That concerns me because we are in a position where we can take immediate action. Sometimes the police may arrest someone, but they can get out on bail, and that may not necessarily stop those people from providing a service,” she said.
Massage therapists fall into a second tier of health services providers, which means they are not legally required to have formal qualifications or be registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) in the way doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists are.
Instead, they are captured by a secondary system of “negative licensing” in Victoria and several other states, where complaints made against them can be investigated and bans handed down when it is found that individuals present a risk to public safety.
An independent review led by former New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commissioner Sue Dawson was the latest to call for better protections for patients.
The report raised serious concerns of sexual misconduct and recommended that Australian governments expand the national health regulation scheme to include new high-risk professions, with national codes and complaint handling processes for massage therapists and other non-registered health service providers.
The Association of Massage Therapists (AMT) is one of several industry bodies currently providing some sort of self-regulation of practitioners via a code of ethics and professional standards, while promoting the National Code of Conduct, which can be enforced by the HCC.
However, after more than a decade of pushing for greater oversight, the association’s chief executive officer, Rebecca Barnett, said more was needed to protect the public and uphold the reputation of the majority of safe therapists.
The AMT is calling for a national register of massage therapists, where members of the public can search the names of massage therapists to check their qualifications and determine whether they meet certain standards to practice. AMT also wants to see mandatory police checks for practitioners, something that is required by several industry groups, but not a legal requirement to work as a massage therapist in Australia.
“It’s not great look, because it makes it look like it’s an industry that is riddled with predators, which clearly isn’t the case,” Barnett said.
“The complaint system is fairly fractured, and it means that when people experience something that is very traumatic, they’re already confused, and then they’re trying to navigate where to turn.
“That fragmentation should be addressed with a more coherent form of regulation.”
An Australian Department of Health spokesperson said health ministers had asked the Health Workforce Taskforce to review the risk assessment method for deciding which professions needed to be regulated under the national scheme, to be completed by mid-2026.
“Sexual assault is a criminal offence, and the Australian Government has no tolerance for this behaviour,” the Health Department spokesperson said.
Anyone concerned about the conduct of a health service provider can contact the Health Complaints Commissioner at hcc.vic.gov.au or call on 1300 582 113.
