Preventing Persistent Pain is a proactive program designed to help those who are experiencing recurrent pain and are at risk of the pain becoming chronic.
It is an interactive education program tailored to the patient’s specific needs, not a ‘hands-on’ clinical therapy to replace any other treatments you may be currently having. The focus is on education that explains the neuroscience behind how chronic pain develops and what continues to drive it. Research shows that if people understand ‘why’ they hurt and how their danger warning system is becoming more sensitive, they are empowered to make the necessary changes to turn the volume knob back down again. It allows them to re-engage in physical strategies to improve function and mobility. It is available as an in-person consult in Nowra, or via telehealth anywhere in Australia.
This program is available to:
- Private patients via self-referral or GP referral
- DVA & Comcare with an appropriate referral from your GP
- Worker’s Compensation with referral from your nominated treating Dr that is included on the management section of the Certificate of Capacity. I will send an approval request to your insurer when we have your claim details.
The Preventing Persistent Pain program is offered by physiotherapist Dr Rowena Field as 3 one-hour education sessions.
- Assessment and introduction to pain neuroscience education.
- Pain neuroscience education with downloadable resources. Learning goals include:
- Pain is real and personal, but pain and tissue damage frequently don’t correlate.
- Our nervous system is adaptable and over time builds to become more sensitive, resulting in greater pain perception but no new damage.
- Our pain experience is shaped by perception of danger or safety by the brain, and there are a lot of other things outside of the structures that were originally injured that contribute to this.
- Pain is just one protective strategy that we have, and other body systems also become affected and can be targets of therapeutic strategies.
- Active treatment strategies that relevant and enjoyable to the person that don’t increase the perceived threat are the best way to gradually increase function and desensitise the nervous system.
- Practical applications and lifestyle modification to assist in pain management, as well assisting the individual the individual to problem-solve active recovery strategies.
Please note: If you already have established complex chronic pain, then STEPP (solutions, tools, and education for persisting pain) is the program to assist you.
Please click here for a downloadable flyer and fee information