If you had been moving through In-Balance during the month of March you may have noticed posters advertising the Pain Revolution Bike Ride Tour founded by the highly respected pain researcher Professor Lorimer Moseley. Hopefully your interest was peaked enough to attend a Pain Revolution Community Education Seminar. If not, do not fear, you have not missed out.
The vision for the Pain Revolution, is that all Australians will have access to the knowledge, skills and local support to prevent and overcome persistent pain. The Local Pain Educator Program is a community based health promotion initiative of the Revolution, that aims to raise awareness of educational models for pain treatment. This is because it is well understood learning about pain is an effective therapy for treating pain. When we understand why we hurt, we hurt less.
Vanessa Bakker and I are thrilled to have been selected to join the Local Pain Educator Program for 2019/2020. Last week we participated in Immersion week in Hobart with 17 of our peers from around the State. We have been challenged and inspired by a range of workshops and targeted discussions involving key stakeholder groups, clinicians working in the national pain space, funding body’s, representatives from health care governance and consumers from across Tasmania, who are living with persistent pain. The result being the development of an action plan for implementing pain education to you.
Vanessa and I have been challenged to reflect over our personal skill sets related to this practice area, in an effort to identify potential areas for growth, to ensure we are fit for the task ahead of us. We have also met our mentors, experienced practitioners in the persistent pain space, who we will meet with regularly over the next 2 years.
In being Local Pain Educators we are committed to providing at least 6 Pain Revolution Community Education Events to the public and health professionals living and working in our community. Whilst we have developed an initial “map” of potential locations for Education events, we are open to suggestions at any time. As Local Pain Educators, we are members of a national network of health practitioners who have been given the opportunity to develop higher level expertise in pain science and education. For the next two years we will receive ongoing support to educate and empower you to learn about pain, in order to prevent and overcome persistent pain. What an amazing opportunity, both for Vanessa and I and our community.
Watch this space. We will keep you updated with our progress and dates and times for community education events in your area. If you would like to get involved or support the Local Pain Education initiative in any way, feel free to contact Vanessa or I directly at In-Balance.