Secondary prevention of chronic pain in Eastern Melbourne

The issue

A recent report from the Australia Prevention Partnership Centre concluded that opportunities to prevent subacute pain from transitioning to chronic pain are sometimes missed in the primary care setting[1].

What’s happening in Eastern Melbourne?

Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network (EMPHN) is undertaking a mapping of pain recovery services in the primary care domain in its catchment, to inform recommendations for future work in this area.

EMPHN wants to understand service entry points, failure points, and service gaps for consumers at risk of progressing to chronic pain post-surgery, post-trauma or post-diagnosis of pain-related conditions.

This includes, for example, feedback on navigating the primary health system, medication management for pain, awareness of services and referral pathways, as well as ability to seek local support. 

Seeking your insights and recommendations

Larter Consulting has been engaged to undertake a consultation to identify experiences and perceptions of the patient recovery journey during the 6-12 weeks post an acute pain event.

We want to hear from:

  • consumers and patients (for example, after surgery, injury, back pain)
  • GPs and nurses
  • pain clinicians including multidisciplinary pain recovery services.

We invite you to share your insights (what works, what is not working) and recommendations for improvement to inform next steps for EMPHN.

You can:

Contact Jo Grzelinska on jo@larter.com.au or call / SMS 0418 595 781 to arrange a time convenient for you.

Timelines: The consultation is open 1 February – 18 March 2021.

Project contacts

EMPHN lead

Susan Rice, Lead Sector Capacity & After Hours, 0419 475 855, susan.rice@emphn.org.au

Lead consultant

Jo Grzelinska, Principal Consultant, 0418 595 781, jo@larter.com.au 

     

This initiative is funded by the Australian Government under the PHN program.

[1] Secondary prevention of chronic pain. Rapid review and mapping of options for Primary Health Networks. The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre (Sax Institute), October 2019. https://www.emphn.org.au/images/uploads/files/1-Oct-2019-Review-and-mapping-of-options-secondary-prevention-of-chronic-pain.pdf