Charlotte Varcoe
THE Limestone Coast has been chosen for a pilot project aiming to tackle chronic pain.
The project will implement a combined intervention in the region as well as in Western Victoria – both of which will share in the $3m funding.
According to the UniSA EQUIPP project, chronic pain is the nation’s biggest health care challenge in terms of disability and economic impact.
One in 100 Australians living with chronic pain cannot access multidisciplinary treatment and for those who do, fewer than 20 per cent receive best-practice care.
Project manager Doctor Louise Wiles said the project was to be in the Limestone Coast with an “increasing burden” of chronic conditions – such as chronic pain – and access to health care services limited.
“Government data tells us that certain treatments for chronic pain are being delivered at higher rates than state and national averages, such as total knee replacement surgeries and prescription of opioids,” Ms Wiles said.
“The Local Pain Educator Program has been running in the Limestone Coast from 2023-2024 and this is a program run by UniSA’s Pain Revolution team that helps to build capacity within the health professional workforce to provide best care.”
She said the project aimed to improve the quality of care provided to people living in the Limestone Coast by upskilling the local workforce and increasing community understanding of chronic pain and how best to treat it.
“In terms of chronic pain we do not have solid prevalence data on specific regions,” Ms Wiles said.
“The second component is a whole community public health education and messaging campaign about chronic pain, to help people understand it better and how best to treat it.”
She said it was a “critical piece” to increase the community’s understanding of chronic pain and how to treat it.
“The reason why both components are so important is that if healthcare professionals are equipped to deliver best care and the community knows to expect it, we know their outcomes will be much better,” she said.
“We are really excited in terms of what we are hoping to achieve because ultimately our aim is to improve the quality of care provided to people living with chronic pain on the Limestone Coast.”
Ms Wiles said they also wanted to work with the Limestone Coast community to develop strategies and engage them in co-designing the education intervention and campaign for chronic pain specific to them.
“The reason for this is because we know that health education programs are most effective when they are designed and delivered collaboratively with local communities and key people who have an interest in the area so that programs are specific and relevant for each community’s unique characteristics and needs,” she said.
“In terms of upskilling – which happens throughout the Pain Revolution program – it is typically open to general practitioners in the area, practice nurses and a range of allied health care professionals.”
She said building relationships with the local community and helping improve knowledge about chronic pain and care was also on the agenda.
“We will need healthcare professionals on board to hear about their challenges in delivering care and how our intervention can be developed and interleaved with existing services which operate in the area,” Ms Wiles said.
“Chronic pain can increase the risk of other chronic conditions, such as increased body-mass-index, it can also increase the risk of stroke, cancer, depression, multiple sclerosis and even rheumatoid arthritis.”
The trial program will be coming to the Limestone Coast from September 13 until 21 and will be moving from Mount Gambier/Berrin to Naracoorte and Millicent before travelling into Western Victoria.
There is also expected to be a range of public events, information sessions, access to speak to clinicians, pain researchers and offer perspectives around what chronic pain is like and share experiences of living with it.
