The Chronic Pain Service – Merri Health

The Merri Health Chronic Pain Service provides an evidence-based, multidisciplinary service to help people self-manage and recover from pain. It is for people aged at least 18 who have had chronic or persistent pain for longer than 3 months. It is available for residents of Hume, Darebin Merri-bek, Yarra, Melbourne, Moonee Ponds and the Macedon Ranges.

The community based service is run by highly specialised pain clinicians dedicated to providing interdisciplinary, evidence-based, holistic and person-centred care, with input from general practitioners and clinicians from The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Northern Health.

It uses treatment modalities including pain medication, medical management, cognitive functional therapy, psychological approaches, lifestyle coaching, exercise, and mindfulness skills to provide the best possible tools for each patient’s pain care journey.

It provides:

• an active management and biopsychosocial approach
• options for individual, group and telehealth consultations
• care coordination, physiotherapy, and clinical psychology
• medical consultation, if required, on site at Merri Health, in partnership with the RMH
• options for involvement in case consultations and conferencing with the staff.

Client data and outcomes are collected via Merri Health’s client information system, and through the national Electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration.

Annual results have demonstrated:

• 91.7% of Merri Health patients made at least some overall improvement
• 75% of Merri Health patients had improvements in their physical abilities.