Wellness centre falls through cracks

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This article was published 29/01/2021 (2109 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dozens of Kori Gordon’s clients are suffering physically, mentally and emotionally since she has had to keep her doors closed while observing unclear provincial health orders.

Gordon, who owns Natural Elements Wellness Centre in Brandon, offers holistic therapies, including float therapy and halotherapy.

Despite her numerous attempts to engage with the government and public health officials to clarify the services her small business offers, the government has repeatedly miscategorized them.

Float therapy is essentially a sensory deprivation tank, with water at skin temperature and saturated with Epsom salt. Halotherapy is also a salt-based treatment — halo is a Greek prefix meaning salt — where the client sits in an isolated room breathing dry micro-particles of salt.

The three float chambers at Natural Elements are each in their own separate rooms, while the halotherapy room is also single occupancy. Appropriate health and sanitation protocols were in place long before COVID-19 arrived to Manitoba. With scheduling, one client will not encounter another, though they will encounter the properly distanced and masked owner.

After a forced shutdown in the spring, when COVID-19 reached Manitoba, Gordon was finally able to reopen in June.

“At that point, I really had to fight. It was tooth and nail I was fighting because they were telling me that I wasn’t going to be able to open until at least the end of August into September. I was furious,” she said.

“In the first round of openings, back in the spring, hairdressers were able to open. I thought, if hairdressers can open, surely I can open.”

The answer was “no.” The reasoning, Gordon said, was that she did not belong to a governing body. Neither do hairdressers, she countered. That’s when the government categorized her business as a swimming pool.

“I said, ‘no.’ Then it was a spa. I said, ‘No, not a spa, either.’ That’s when they landed on personal services,” said Gordon.

A provincial spokesperson said via email to The Brandon Sun that the public health orders state that regulated health professions, those that fall under The Regulated Health Professions Act, and non-regulated health professions, that are set out in Order 19, can operate under the current public health restrictions. Any health-care-related businesses that fall outside of that cannot operate.

For Gordon, that’s all the more confounding. She can continue to offer Reiki, as that falls under Order 19, which includes perdortists and reflexologists.

“So I can do a Reiki session for somebody, where I’m an hour in an enclosed room with them, close contact, touching them. But I can’t do access bars (another energy healing modality), which is the same type of thing, same situation, just different hand positions,” said Gordon.

“I also can’t have anybody come in to go to do float therapy and halotherapy, where they’re in a room by themselves with no contact.”

The Sun is in possession of two dozen letters from clients, written in the hopes the government and public health officials would recognize how she fits in with the current orders, and that they consider her services essential.

Letter after letter outlines painful physical ailments and mental health disorders alleviated by float therapy and/or halotherapy. Quality of life for Gordon’s clients have improved — for some, quite dramatically — due to the holistic therapies she offers, and that often includes reduction in pain and other medications.

See below: “Clients struggle without access to holistic health services” for excerpts from several letters.

Many of the letters also note that these clients feel safer at Natural Elements than they do at the grocery store or at a massage therapist’s office.

Gordon, who opened her small business in May 2019, has more than 100 clients who use her holistic therapy services. The pandemic did throw a wrench in her plans in the spring of 2020, but when she did reopen in June, clients returned and the business grew. She launched a stress release program and, later in the summer, a pain relief program.

“I started that one (pain relief) just before the lockdown started, so people were just in the middle of it and had to quit. A lot of people were left kind of hanging in the middle of their program,” said Gordon.

“Those that have participated in the six-week stress release program, a number of them continued on with the new tools that they had received through their six-week program. They had built up their momentum, and they were doing quite well. Then it’s all taken away from them.”

Jonathan Alward is the director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s prairie region.

He said some businesses, such as Gordon’s fall into a huge grey area.

While noting Order 19 specifically mentions three types of health services, the order as a whole demonstrates a broad-based approach to non-regulated health professionals and wellness services that are being offered.

“That’s fine with them (the three mentioned). I can understand the justification for all of those, but there are so many other things that people could do safely in that same vein, to help mental and physical health that were left out,” Alward said.

“I don’t know why that was the case. We certainly raised them with the province and keep pushing that.”

Alward said it is frustrating, and he feels bad for many of these owners that, through no fault of their own, have been forced to close and are being left out.

“I understand, to a degree, the province taking some really big sectors that impact a lot of people’s lives and open them up first. But we’ve also had two and a half months to figure out these smaller businesses that can operate completely safe, and let them have a chance to keep their business afloat long term, as well,” he said.

Gordon tried to take a different approach. Item 55, in the list of businesses allowed to open, states: “A business that provides mental health or addictions supports or services, such as counselling.” In mid-December, she sent letters out to a variety of officials requesting clarification.

She hasn’t received a single reply.

In January, she and other small businesses in Brandon sent a letter asking for consideration to open according to region, based on local COVID-19 numbers. And, if the answer was, ‘no,’ then the business owners wanted the rationale — science and fact. The two-page missive makes a case for the province to go back to the drawing board in its handling of small businesses.

They received what appears to be a form letter, from the office of the assistant deputy minister for Health, Seniors and Active Living, which cites unprecedented times and collaborative efforts.

At daily COVID-19 updates, the Sun has tried various ways to pose questions to get more detailed answers. The response is always much like Dr. Jazz Atwal’s this past Tuesday — who first responded to the question as one about a retail business.

After we asked the question again, he said physical and mental health services are available.

“The regulated health professionals are able to work and people can access health care. People do have access to that. They are able to connect with their health-care providers virtually or in person if need be,” he said.

Gordon wonders what kind of government can brush people off and not provide answers. She sent a letter to the Westman Regional Cabinet Office, four local MLAs, Dr. Brent Roussin and Premier Brian Pallister on Monday signalling she would open her business Thursday, on Bell Let’s Talk Day, moving forward with 55 on the list of allowed businesses.

She received a response within 20 minutes from the regional office saying someone would get back to her by the end of the day Tuesday.

“I cannot comment if it would fit under the intent of the sections you reference below but want you to note that I have reissued the request for an urgent or immediate response. Thank you for your patience. I will ensure I follow up with you by end of day Tuesday (tomorrow),” stated senior manager Jordan Sisson.

Gordon said on Thursday she hasn’t heard back.

She ultimately chose not to reopen. She does not want to risk involving COVID-19 enforcement and a hefty $1,296 fine.

“I’m in limbo. I don’t want to go outside what the orders potentially mean. I don’t know where to go at this point,” she said.

Clients struggle without access to services

Because of the extremely personal nature of health and mental health, the Sun agreed to preserve Natural Elements Wellness Centre clients’ anonymity. These are a few excerpts from two dozen clients who wrote letters about how the continued closure of the wellness centre affects them.

“I have a chronic illness that causes pain and fatigue. I can do many things at home to take care for myself and help manage the pain, but I have not found anything quite like the relief offered from floating in the tanks at Natural Elements Wellness Centre,” wrote one client.

“There are many studies that support and show the relief that this offers patients who suffer with a wide variety of symptoms.”

Another client, a teacher, wrote:

“This closure has had a profound impact on my health — both physically and mentally. I started going to the float chambers to relieve stress and anxiety. As a teacher, I have an abundance of both this year. I had been floating once a week for seven weeks. The benefits of the float chambers far outweighed my expectations of them,” she stated.

“It not only reduced my anxiety and panic attacks, it also improved the quality of my sleep and overall tension. Floating relieved the pain in my neck and lower back from arthritis. My headaches, which were daily and required prescription medication to fight them, were diminished to about once a week. My overall well-being and outlook on life improved when the rest of my life was in total turmoil.”

One client served multiple tours in Afghanistan and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“Going to Natural Elements and being able to float for an hour while listening to meditation podcasts have helped me manage my PTSD. With the lockdown, businesses like Natural Elements are being forced to close thus causing regression in the progress I had made. As massage parlours and psych offices have been deemed essential services, so should Natural Elements,” he stated.

Yet another client, a 71-year-old man who battles with PTSD and depression, stated floating and halotherapy has proved effective in helping him face daily challenges.

“These are invaluable to me, especially during these trying times,” he stated.

“Not only do these help my mental state, they also provide for physical healing. I suffer from arthritis and have found no better ‘medicine’ than floating. I cannot emphasize strongly enough that for many of us who use this therapy that taking it away has caused us anxiety and now having to rely on pills and creams to help in relieving the pain.”

That client’s wife wrote a letter attesting to her husband’s improved condition, noting he has been on medication for years for his mental health conditions.

“When he started going to Natural Elements, and in particular the floating component, he was able to ease off of his medications considerably and was much more relaxed,” she stated, adding floating helped ease their anxiety in these pandemic times.

One client, with chronic allergies, asthma and eczema, found relief with halotherapy. In addition, she brought her 14-year-old to the centre to help treat her ongoing mental health needs.

“Revoking my daughter’s right to treat her mental health with a service that she has found connection and hope in is extremely disappointing to the both of us. In a time where we are told the importance of accessing service for our mental health needs, it’s frustrating when that service is non-accessible due to government constraints,” the mother stated.

“I believe that Natural Elements offers something that many people can find benefit in, rather than resorting to conventional prescription medication. Having lost this service leaves me and many others being denied a service that improves our physical and mental health, as well as our right to a choice based health care plan.”

One client who spoke with the Sun has used the float therapy almost weekly since before the pandemic. She has an anxiety disorder.

“I found it provided a reset for me. It was another coping mechanism to help me deal with life before COVID, never mind during COVID. When it was taken away, it was a tool that they took away from us to cope with all this, even more stress,” she said.

“It really is an important tool for my mental health.”

Now that client is struggling, has had to take extra medication to compensate.

“In a perfect world, if there are tools, instead of medication, I’d prefer to be using those tools. Not only did it counteract the negative, it was also a positive in my life. It was something I looked forward to.”

She also said Gordon is invested in her clients and their well-being.