A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO MEET THE MINISTER!
IS THE PENNY STARTING TO DROP?

by Gary Moorhead

One of the more esoteric tasks of the SMA CEO is lobbying politicians and public servants on behalf of members and the Federation. In the last four years I have trudged (driven) up the hill to Parliament House or motored into the wilds of Woden with many members in pursuit of a variety of objectives.

These lobbying expeditions have included accompanying the Australian College of Sports Physicians seeking appropriate recognition for their specialist status; Australian Association of Exercise and Sports Scientists seeking GST exemption for exercise physiologists; various groups of members seeking support for Cooperative Research Centre applications or funding for research grant applications; most frequently on SMA’s account, searching for some funding support for the various activities the Federation undertakes on behalf of the wider community. Lobbying politicians in Parliament House is characterised by long waits, disrupted schedules, short meetings and generally unsatisfactory outcomes.

Which makes the events of last Monday quite extraordinary!

That day’s agenda was a round of lobbying in support of the apparently threatened funding of a research project involving a number of SMA members. One of the meetings was a 10-minute appointment to brief an adviser to one of the Ministers with responsibility in the area. The extraordinary event was that the meeting actually went 10 minutes short of two hours. The Adviser knew from previous encounters that Sports Medicine Australia had a long-term (40 years) interest in promoting safe sport and physical activity to the Australian people. As it happened, his Minister had recently announced that the promotion of physical activity to the portfolio’s client base was to become a major priority.

The outcome of the meeting is that SMA is to provide a detailed brief of how we can assist the Minister in achieving this objective. Taken together with the recent announcement of massive funding grants ($6.5 million) from the NHMRC to SMA members and physical activity researchers Professors Adrian Bauman, Wendy Brown and Neville Owen, perhaps we are seeing genuine signs of a recognition on the part of the Federal Government of something SMA members have been working to achieve since the formation of the organisation.

More Firsts

Recent elections and nominations to SMA Boards have seen new ground broken for the Federation in a number of areas. The Victorian SMA Branch has three “firsts”: first female President; first Dietitian President; first President who is pregnant! Congratulations to Kylie Andrew on all three counts.

Getting their Act Together

Sports-based soft tissue therapists are making significant strides in their long-running campaign to lift standards and professionalism.

Brad Hiskens from the AIS, who has been heavily involved in this process, reports that the push to achieve these goals has been fought on two major fronts: academic standards (competency-based standards) and industry unification (association amalgamation).

The recent amalgamation of many of its largest associations (Australian Massage Therapists Association, Professional Massage & Remedial Therapists Society, Queensland Association of Massage Therapists, Society of Clinical Masseurs and Western Australian Association of Masseurs) has seen profound changes to the industry. The unified body, the Australian Association of Massage Therapists (AAMT), covers most states, currently has more than 4,500 members and is growing rapidly. Communication continues with the remaining associations with one national body the ultimate goal.

Brad reports that in a marathon effort encompassing all factions of the Massage/Soft Tissue therapy industry, a competency-based education system has been developed in conjunction with the Australian National Training Authority. As described in a previous issue of Sports Health, the industry has differentiated between the two obvious vocations within the industry. The ‘relaxation’ vocation has been designated a minimum academic level of Certificate IV. The ‘Remedial’ vocation (or primary health care practitioners) have been designated a minimum academic level of diploma. These academic levels are currently being implemented into educational institutions across the nation. An audit system is also administered to verify that those institutions are teaching to the correct competency level.

The competencies held by the Australian National Training Authority are able to be reviewed every two years. Brad envisages that the level of education will reach the inevitable degree level. The industry desperately needs affiliation with the university-based system to access the infrastructure, experience, and budget necessary for research. Research is extremely difficult when the educational institutions are limited to TAFE and private colleges.

On another front, the sports soft tissue therapists within the industry are developing a special interest group (SIG) that is envisaged will be administered by AAMT and the education delivered via SMA. The sports SIG recognise SMA as a vital partner in the development and recognition of this soft tissue therapy SIG. Already the sports soft tissue therapy SIG, although not officially formed, have representation via an invited speaker, Karen Lucas, and a workshop presentation, Stuart Hinds, at this year’s Australian Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport. More information on the development of the sports soft tissue therapy SIG will be forthcoming when more formal implementations are made.

Sports Medicine Australia is pleased to be able to assist in this process.

Dancing Between the Raindrops

Together with the Australian Association of Exercise and Sports Science, Sports Medicine Australia has guidelines for pre-existing screening and supervision of fitness testing, based on the American College of Sports Medicine Guidelines. In summary, the guidelines recommend a medical clearance before undertaking an exercise program for anyone with a pre-existing medical condition.

In 1998 in a paper published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Norton et al calculated the cost of rigorous application of these guidelines to be anything up to $1.2 billion annually. The paper called for a review of the guidelines.

More recently, the Guidelines have caused concerns amongst physical activity advocates who see them as presenting a serious barrier to increasing levels of physical activity. This is particularly the case when the group who are the major target of physical activity programs - Australians over 50 years of age – are as likely as not (more than 50%) to have a pre-existing medical condition. Over the next six to twelve months, SMA will be seeking to address this issue by producing a modified version of the Guidelines. This is no easy task, as the recommendations will need to encourage safe activity among an at-risk population, while at the same time avoiding placing SMA or SMA members at risk of legal action. Any SMA member interested in participating in this process should contact me at gary.moorhead@sma.org.au