The evidence tells us that low back pain is a major global problem. A recent Lancet article by Buchbinder et al, reports that low back pain is the “leading cause of years lost to disability and its burden is growing alongside a growing and ageing population”. The article and its sequelae note how commonly inappropriate treatment is delivered world wide. 1.
The NSW Health ACI guidelines recommend a multi disciplinary approach to support “Active self-management”and to “retrain the brain”. So we are providing a Pain Self Management course at Vital Lifestyle Ctr. to do just that!
Since completion of a MSc Med (pain Mgt.) at U Syd and research at the Pain Management Research Institute PMRI, Royal North Shore Hospital RNSH in 2015, Michael Mulholland has been teaching pain management programs to both patients and clinicians.
In February 2018 he was invited by the Brazil Health Ministry to present at the inaugural Global Integrative Medicine Congress in Rio De Janeiro and has taught management of acute and chronic pain conditions to doctors, physiotherapists and osteopaths in Vienna, St Petersburg, Rio De janeiro and Porto Alegre.
The program for Patients is a total of 10 contact hours plus home activities, delivered over 4 sessions. The course will have a maximum of 6 participants per group. Referring GP’s will receive a brief report after completion, including ePPOC scores pre and post course.
The course is modelled on the Brief Pain Self Management program developed by Prof Michael Nicholas and his team at RNSH. It also incorporates self management tools developed by L Mosley and D Butler from University Adelaide and Neuro Orthopaedic Institute noi.
Persistent or chronic pain is very different to acute pain. It is complex and therefore requires more than the usual biomechanical or biomedical approach of purely manual therapies or pharmaceutical approaches. The course explains pain mechanisms and helps to empower the lay person with evidence based strategies that improve function in work, domestic and leisure activities.
4 x 2.5 hour, weekly sessions. Total cost including notes. $500.
Dates: Wednesdays August15 and 22 and September 5 and 12. 10:30am – 1:00pm
Call 99076387 to reserve a place.
1. Buchbinder et al. The Lancet March 21, 2018.