New help for pain consumers and health professionals

The following is a Media Release from the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) on 25 March 2014:

Chronic pain is real – it’s not imagined. Affecting one in five of us, it is pain that persists for more than three months and doesn’t go away. It interferes with people’s lives, work and relationships.
Many people find that those around them don’t understand their predicament and so they feel isolated and alone.
There is now hope offered in a website that offers new knowledge and skills that can change outcomes in chronic pain. Through engaging online resources, complementary materials for patients and health professionals, it provides a promising alternative to pain medication and procedural interventions.
It’s an initiative of the Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI) – part of the NSW Health system and its response to the NSW Pain Plan. And it’s setting out to empower consumers and GPs with the latest scientific knowledge to understand and manage chronic pain.
The ACI Pain Management Network’s website offers:

• Interactive learning and self-management modules for adolescents with chronic pain
• Online resources that promote self-management to help people to retrain their brain’s response to chronic pain
• Inspirational videos of people young and old sharing their experience of how adopting an evidence based approach to pain made a real difference to their daily lives
• Practical tools and resources to help people with chronic pain to improve daily sleep and mood, guidance on the role of pain medication and the importance of healthy lifestyles
• A health professional toolkit that includes assessment and management tools for doctors and healthcare professionals working in the community, factsheets for patients and information on NSW Pain Clinics.

Visit the website at:

Learn more about the Pain Management Network