Sunday, 24th March 2024
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Prominent clinician, researcher and educator, A/Professor Claire Ashton-James, presented a paper titled: “Addressing Social Aspects of Pain in Clinical Practice” at the New Zealand Pain Society Annual Scientific Conference in Dunedin.
Claire has conducted research with over 100 clinician (multidisciplinary) participants to identify reasons why clinicians DO NOT discuss social aspects of pain with patients, and do not suggest strategies for addressing social vulnerabilities in treatment. The punchline is that clinicians do not feel confident to have these conversations because their training in pain management is bio-psycho, rather than bio-psycho-social.
Her paper inspired some fascinating feedback, including this from physio ‘Paul’ who wrote: “You highlighted that social inequities, marginalized groups, race, gender, class, cultures, social exclusion, the environment all contribute to pain. If these things aren’t addressed, it doesn’t matter whether we (clinicians) think we have solved the problem of pain, people continue to face these issues.”
