Call for VR practitioners working with people experiencing chronic pain

I am an OT who is part of the chronic pain management team at the Walton Centre in Liverpool.

Alongside working on the pain management programme, I run employment clinics for chronic pain patients to support them with return to work and work retention.I was also part of the team for the writing of the first edition of the Royal College of Physicians UK Guidelines for the Management of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). One of my MRes projects focused on the impact of spinal cord stimulation on activity engagement including work in CRPS patients. (Haynes et al 2014)One project has raised questions regarding the impact of chronic pain conditions on employment and the factors that can affect this.

In CRPS  for example, reported return to work (RTW) rates vary and range between 30–87% (Subbarao and Stillwell, 1981; Dauty et al, 2001; Singh et al, 2004; de Mos et al, 2009; Pichon and Descatha, 2010; Kang et al, 2012). The large variation in results suggests numerous other factors may influence RTW rates. One of these studies reveals that participants diagnosed and treated within 8 months of the onset of symptoms, those who had higher levels of education and those working in white-collar jobs experienced higher employment retention rates (Kang et al, 2012).

Our suspicion is that type of job may play a significant role in RTW/work retention in the chronic pain population. For example, chronic pain sufferers with more physically demanding/blue collar type jobs may have more difficulty in maintaining employment.At this stage we are simply gaining insight into the experience of therapists working in this area. We hope to formulate more specific research questions in future.

‍It would therefore be helpful to gather information from those of you working with chronic pain sufferers (e.g. FMS, CRPS, chronic pain in general) by commenting on the following questions:-

1. Do you think that job type plays a significant role in RTW or work retention?
2. What other factors facilitate return to work and work retention in individuals with chronic pain?
3. Conversely what factors have you come across that prevent an individual from returning to/retaining employment?
4. Have you been involved in any research/audits looking at factors that influence RTW and work retention in the chronic pain population?

If you have any comments/experiences to share, I would love to hear from you.Thank you for your time.Louise HaynesSpecialist OT in pain managementlouise.haynes@thewaltoncentre.nhs.uk

Thanks to RCOT SS Work for sharing this.