Today, Monday the 27th of July is the beginning of National Pain week for 2020. The theme for this year is “The Faces of Pain” and the National Pain Week website has a video series worth exploring, a series of videos of people with chronic pain talking about their lives and their lived experience of chronic pain. This video series and all of the information at the website is invaluable information for people who live with chronic pain, for people who care for someone with chronic pain but also for the community in general.
Given that this week is pain week, we thought it was a good opportunity to explore the role of psychology in chronic pain management because even though it is a highly recommended service for people with chronic pain, its role is not always well understood.
To begin, what is chronic or persistent pain? Chronic pain is defined pain that has persisted for more than three months. The cause of chronic pain could be disease such as cancer, shingles or arthritis, or perhaps a physical trauma such as a fall or a workplace injury, or a small injury like a broken bone that has left persistent pain behind. Sometimes the pain is a mystery and a clear cause of the chronic pain can’t be identified.
Irrespective of cause, living with chronic pain can be exhausting, debilitating and frustrating and most talk about chronic pain as having a major impact on day to day life. The support that is needed for the pain journey is multifaceted and evidence suggests that best outcomes are associated with a multidisciplinary team approach where an individual is linked with a comprehensive care team such as having a good GP, necessary medical specialists, physical therapies and psychology.
So how does psychology fit in? Understandably, when someone is living with a chronic condition that is having an impact on day to day life, they would benefit from having someone to support them through this. More specifically though, psychologists can help people with chronic pain:
To manage the stress, anxiety and depression that can come with chronic pain
To understand the link between mood, thoughts and pain
To build coping skills
To understand patterns of behaviour that impact on pain
To cope with the challenges of the compensation system
To process feelings of sadness, loss of hope, grief and loss associated with pain
To manage comorbid difficulties like poor sleep, loss of function, the experience of stigma or relationship difficulties
To find a way forward in life
In the 2020 Australian National Pain Survey, people surveyed communicated that they felt seeing allied health professionals (including physiotherapists, psychologists and pain specialists) was central to their pain management and helped them to “get their bodies moving, to learn about pain, to understand and access natural therapies, to learn techniques for dealing with the mental aspects of pain and to learn new management techniques”.
What are you waiting for? For support with your chronic pain or supporting a loved one with chronic pain, contact our team on (03) 9882-8874. For more information about chronic pain and to view the “Faces of Pain” video series and National Pain Week information visit http://www.nationalpainweek.org.au.
To make an appointment with our team give us a call on 9882-8874.
This blog was written and prepared by Dr Victoria Miller - Clinical and Principal Psychologist at Melbourne Wellbeing Group.