ELAP: Now that I’ve read the whole thing…

[massageblog]

I spent most of my spare time during the past week reading the Final Report and the Entry-Level Education Blueprint of the ELAP. Again, I will offer my appreciation for the collaboration of the Coalition and the team that actually performed the work on this. It was a big project and obviously, people took time away from their own pursuits to participate in it.
Now that I have read the whole thing in its entirety, I have a few observations on it. I quote from the Coalition statement:
We aspire to have this report influence several profession audiences:
• the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards, which can use The Core as it builds guidelines for a model practice act;
My comment on that: The press release announcing that the FSMTB was going to create a Model Practice Act first appeared on April 1, 2011. In a letter I received dated Jan.31, 2014, FSMTB Executive Director Debra Persinger stated that the Task Force is currently completing the final revisions before releasing it for public comment, so the ELAP will be a last-minute inclusion, if it does in fact get included. And, since the MBLEx is a 500-hour entry level exam, this would necessitate some major changes on that, as well.
• state licensing boards, which can use The Core in setting education requirements for licensees;
My comment on that: What is the Model Practice Act doing, if not that? It seems very possible that this is a duplication of efforts. While there are of course other things included in a practice act, one of them is spelling out the hours of required education. I don’t know any state board that goes much beyond setting the total number of required hours, and how that should be broken down in a general list of required subject matter. Not to mention changing a practice act requires legislative action.
• the Alliance for Massage Therapy Education, which can refer to The Core in creating teacher training standards and curricula;
My comment on that: Aha! And therein lies the clincher and the biggest issue I have with it. Since I couldn’t say it any better myself, I am going to share the comment that Rick Rosen left on my FB page: READ MORE…
Tags: ABMP, AFMTE, AMTA, COMTA, Debra Persinger, ELAP, FSMTB, Massage, NCBTMB