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Why First Aid for Complementary Therapists is so Important

Edited: July 18, 2024

As a therapist – or any other type of business owner, large or small – you are responsible for the health and safety of your employees and your clients whilst they are in your care or use your products.

You have a duty of care to all your clients and staff to keep them safe. The law requires you to cut the risks of your staff and clients of getting ill or injured, so understanding health and safety is very important. Part of this is the ability to recognise symptoms and give emergency first aid when required.

Understanding the provision of potentially life-saving emergency care and first aid is vital for every complementary therapist. You may be treating clients with an underlying and unrecognised heart disease; raised blood pressure and cholesterol; allergies leading to anaphylactic shock; brittle bones (e.g. due to osteoporosis, or steroid use); anaemia (e.g. due to menopausal problems); challenged adrenal function (e.g. due to steroid use) and any number of other common conditions like brittle asthma or epilepsy and even panic attacks which can present sudden and critical symptoms during treatment.

It is your duty as a therapist to be prepared to recognise and apply emergency first aid until NHS first responders arrive.

The UK law applies to all businesses, large or small. If you’re self-employed or an employer of even a small staff, you are responsible for the health and safety of your business. The law is there to make sure you have a safe working environment to cut down the risk of you, your staff or clients getting ill or injured. So, by law you must be aware of health and safety risks to you, your staff and your clients and this includes giving first aid.

As an employer you must appoint someone who knows about health and safety. This could be yourself, if you have a health and safety qualification, knowledge and experience; one or more of your staff, if they are qualified or you get them trained; or even someone from outside the business. If you’re not confident about managing health and safety in-house then you probably need to call in some external help or advice.

Even if you don’t employ any staff, don’t forget that legally you have what’s called a ‘duty of care’ to anyone who is affected by what you do for a living – even members of the public who might be affected by what you do. For example, someone who feels that their parent, child or partner has been badly affected by your care, might decide to pursue a claim in court.

Our advice is always to keep up-to-date with health and safety regulations – remember that they are there to protect you, your staff and your clients.