By Pete Whitridge
In my last newsletter, I discussed the “required classes”, Ethics, Florida Law, and Prevention of Medical Errors, that we must complete every renewal period. I neglected to mention the additional requirement
of Human Trafficking Awareness. This course has been required for all Department of Health licensees since our last renewal period. These four courses must be taken in addition to the 17 hours of coursework in the ‘relevant to massage’ and ‘general’ categories which we must complete as well.
I was recently asked by a colleague why I don’t teach this Human Trafficking course. My answer is that the class covers a topic in which I have no expertise. The Board of Massage Therapy is very specific
about who or what organizations can qualify to teach this course. While only one hour of classwork is required, the approval process is slow and most CE providers cannot authenticate that they have experience, knowledge, and background for teaching this work.
For myself, I find the subject very difficult to share about because of the horrific stories that must be told about humans being bought, sold, enslaved, and even killed for profit. Human trafficking is a grave,
worldwide problem and one which is sadly common in our state.
Florida ranks third highest in the nation for human trafficking cases and second for labor trafficking, and half of all human trafficking
victims are minors. Increasing awareness of this issue for all healthcare professionals licensed in the state is one attempt to try and reduce the number of individuals who are victims of this criminal activity.
This Human Trafficking requirement is not going away. We will continue to be required to take this important yet challenging class. I suggest that you check to be sure the class you’re considering is
approved by the Board for hour(s) that specifically satisfy the Human Trafficking Awareness requirement (not ‘general’ or ‘relevant to massage’ hours). It’s common for LMT’s to think they’ve completed this
requirement only to discover the course they took was not actually approved for this category.
The link for CEBroker approved courses in this category is: https://courses.cebroker.com/search/fl/massage-therapist?coursePageIndex=1&sortField=RELEVANCE&subjectArea=3551
I hope you’ll join me for the remaining “Big 3” required classes that I’ll be offering in June and again in August at House of Waking Life (HOWL) in downtown Gainesville. By taking these classes in person you’ll get to enjoy time with your colleagues and complete the coursework with no tests, quizzes, or outside reading required.
Register for June Big 3 https://www.whitridgewellness.com/store/p33/Big3Live/Gainesville.html
Register for August Big 3 https://www.whitridgewellness.com/store/p34/Big3Live/Gainesville.html
