Coordinating optimal pain management

Do you want to know more about assessing and managing persons with persistent pain in a community setting?

The complex needs of individuals presenting with persisting pain can be challenging to manage in the time-constrained consultations of GP practices. Nonetheless, your ability to support individuals to respond to their pain condition through self-management is a necessary shift in ownership of the problem and vital for fostering long-term change. Evidence-based care for individuals with pain is possible in the community setting. This talk will offer practical strategies and ideas to take into your practice tomorrow, along with an abundance of resources for both yourself and your clients.  

The end of the session will be open for case advice and discussion.  

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this session, you will be able to: 

• Explain how pain physiology relates to a clinical approach to assessing pain 
• Describe contemporary perspectives on the role of opioids 
• Implement a support and containment approach to persons living with chronic pain 
• Explain medicinal cannabis: what to tell your patients when they ask for access 
• Deliver a pain-therapeutic management approach to individuals living with pain 

SPEAKERS

A/Prof. Dr. Malcolm Hogg

• Staff Specialist, Anaesthesia and Pain Management, Royal Melbourne Hospital 
• Head of Pain Services, Melbourne Health 
• Clinical Associate Professor, Division of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne 

Dr Hogg is a Past-President of the Australian Pain Society and current board member of Painaustralia. He has advised on the development of National Strategic Action Plan for Pain Management and contributed to the development of the National Pain Service directory. Current Victorian activity includes membership on government committees regarding opioid monitoring (Safescript) and in the development of models of care for pain services. 

At Royal Melbourne Hospital, Dr Hogg supervises a co-ordinated range of services, linking in-patient acute and interventional pain management with out-patient multidisciplinary services, which includes management strategies for chronic cancer and non-cancer pain and telehealth linked support to clinicians in western Victoria. Specific clinical interests and research activity includes the transition from acute to persistent pain, opioid, paracetamol and cannabis pharmacology, the use of ketamine to reduce persistent pain and optimal pain management in the older person.

Nicole Moore BA.PHTY, M Public Health (Pain)  

• Senior Pain Physiotherapist and Project Lead, Merri Health 
• Pain Educator, WorkSafe 
• Lecturer, Doctor of Physiotherapy, University of Melbourne 
• Director, mindfulBeing  

Nicole completed her Physiotherapy degree in 2004 and developed an interest in complex pain conditions early in her career as a neurological physiotherapist. Since commencing with the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Pain Services in 2012, Nicole has dedicated her practice to the lived experience of persistent pain and in 2018 was awarded a titled membership of the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) in pain management. 

Nicole is a board member and educator for Yoga for Pain Care Australia and board member of the APA’s Victorian Pain Group. Nicole is an active member of the Australian Pain Society and has presented at conferences, co-authored National guidelines and is currently involved in co-developing an education package. As a Senior Mindfulness Facilitator through the Mindfulness Training Institute of Australasia, Nicole’s practice is dedicated to both the science and experience of the body-mind connection, specifically the interface between pain and suffering and the arising potential for insight and growth. Her aim is to empower her clients to effectively respond to their pain and offer a hopeful journey of recovery.