Managing Chronic Pain

Chronic pain affects thousands of Australians. When we add the emotional, physical, and financial challenges of caregivers, the number of lives touched by chronic pain is much higher. The purpose of this course is to give you, a counsellor, psychologist, or psychotherapist, a basic understanding of chronic pain, and how to help manage it, whether your client is an individual suffering from it or a caregiver supporting someone who does. Upon successful completion of the course, you will be able to: Define chronic pain and cite at least five statistics related to its prevalence; List the chief physical and psychological causes of chronic pain; Discuss the roles of the nervous system and the immune system in contributing to or alleviating chronic pain; Identify the chief consequences for someone living with chronic pain, and further name those which are most amenable to being changed through counselling; Name the principal treatments available to treat chronic pain; Use the different techniques available for counsellors, psychotherapists, and psychologists to help those in chronic pain, or the caregivers supporting them, manage that pain; Advise chronic pain patients how to set up and manage a specialist health team to deal with chronic pain, and explain your role in that team.