National Pain Summit

The National Pain Summit was initiated by the Pain Management Research Institute (PMRI) and the MBF Foundation (MBFF).  The purpose of the Summit is to elevate chronic pain as a significant issue on the political and healthcare agenda, leading to major benefits to consumers and ultimately, more cost-effective healthcare solutions.

Chronic Pain Australia, The Faculty of Pain Medicine and the Australian Pain Society formally support the summit and contribute towards its organisation. It is proposed they will assume leadership for taking proposals forward from the summit.

Chronic Pain Australia representing consumers of chronic pain services in Australia is represented in the Steering Committee and Working Groups.

These are the objectives of the Summit:

1. To contribute to leadership in the development, planning and implementation of chronic pain management research, education and best practice clinical services using a whole of population approach.

2. To bring together experts in the field of chronic pain management, primary healthcare providers, consumers and key Government and private sector stakeholders, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of what is required to manage and minimise the impact and extent of chronic pain in the Australian community - in health, social, human, financial and economic terms.

3. To achieve agreement for a national strategy for implementation of the model of best practice treatment of chronic pain and new standards for treatment of pain patients.

4. To develop the basis of an effective National Pain Strategy to make best practice chronic pain management accessible to all Australians through harnessing the experience of all stakeholders including health professionals, private sector partners, industry, relevant NFP (Not for Profit) organisations, consumer groups, non-government payers (including general, non-health insurers) and state and federal governments.

There are basically 4 working groups (bearing in mind that the last two are engaged in the first two):

  1. Primary Care
  2. Service Delivery
  3. Analysis of Evidence
  4. Consumer Group

 

Consumer Group Members

Jenny Faulkner - Fibromyalgia Aust
Steve Thomson - Pain World
Mandy Nielsen - University of Queensland
Diana Aspinall -  Consumer Health Forum, Population Health Consultant
Coralie Wales, President of Chronic Pain Australia 

Steve, Jenny, Mandy and Coralie attended a Working Group full day meeting at the Faculty of Pain Medicine Headquarters in St Kilda in Melbourne Victoria on Friday 5 June 2009. (Diana attended the teleconference but could not go on the day).

The working group activity was very helpful. Coralie as Chair of the Consumer group suggested that rather than separating out the consumers into a separate group, we needed representation across all the other groups. Consequently Jenny and Steve became part of the Primary Care group, Mandy became part of the Evidence group and Coralie sat in with the Service Delivery group.

Norman Swan is the facilitator for the Summit and he provided reinforcement that the Summit MUST be consumer focused. He suggested that the framework for the working groups needed to be based around the following structure:

  • what are the principles or boundaries/ goals within the focus of the working group?
  • work within the context of the patient’s journey 
  • be mindful of the continuum of care idea
  • make a quick assessment of where we are now
  • make an assessment of where we want to be
  • identify the gap and the elements that make up the gap
  • prioritise those elements, identifying which of those elements would give the greatest return on the effort needed to action the element
  • develop an action plan based on this ‘gap analysis’ - this will be the strategy.
  • from this, develop a business plan

To give you an example of the outcome/ brainstorming of the ‘service delivery’ working party, within the ‘where we want to be’ step of the above framework there were a number of points made around the consumer’s point of view:

  • improved education to all, community knowledge and attitudes – appropriate media messages to reduce the stigma of chronic pain
  • develop a role called ‘pain educator’ - a health professional who has all round skills, not just mind or body
  • language is consistent and ‘sorted’
  • focus is not on the medical model, rather, engagement with the whole person rather than breaking them into small pieces
  • people in pain are well informed and educated and able to make intelligent decisions to help them become good self managers needing less from the health care system and costing themselves less
  • reduce the unnecessary interventions that often disable people
  • equal access to services independent of compensation or socio economic status

If you wish to contribute, you may want to take part in the process by sending us an email with making your thoughts about

  1. identifying gaps in services for pain sufferers
  2. ideas for how it should/ could be

 

best wishes

Coralie Wales

President
Chronic Pain Australia