Pain is a Team Sport:
Inter disciplinary care based programs based on biopsychosoical (BPS) models of chronic pain remain evidence treatment of choice for persistent pain in Australia (Perry, 2016).  Having a team of health professionals working intensely with chronic or persistent pain conditions can be traced back to World War  II when a young doctor, Dr John Bonica began to notice the benefit of working as a team to care for soldiers with painful injuries. Joh Bonica is credited for helping to establish specialist pain services all over the United States and is often regarded as the founding father of pain medicine as it is today (O’Hara, 2001). What was once a field driven primarily by medical and biological approaches Pain Management was is now a speciality involving many other health professions including physiotherapy, psychology, nursing, occupational therapy and exercise physiology to name but a few. At the core of these specialist services has long been the provision of education of patients about the nature of their pain conditions.  The logic being that if a person can understand what is happening in their body they can manage it better (Ratnachandra, 2014).  By their very nature BPS  models are complex and engaging patients in the discussion about them is fraught with problems. The training and education of various heath professionals about persistent pain conditions also varies widely resulting mixed messages often being relayed to patients.
This presentation  introduces a new model that attempts to unify lessons learned from previous research.  The model has been designed to to enhance collaboration across the Inter disciplinary Team (IDT) as well as developed from a patient perspective, so that it can become a tool to help patient understand the complexity and nature of persistent pain,  and in turn guide their recovery and foster their active participation.