By Anne Llewellyn, RN-BC, MS, BHSA, CCM, CRRN
Editor-in-Chief of Case in Point Magazine and the Case Management Resource Guide

The picture that you see in the patient education tool A Focus on Chronic Pain helps you to begin to understand what a person with chronic pain feels: despair, isolation, sadness, even shame.

Regardless of the setting, case managers will be called on to work with patients with chronic pain as it can be the result of a work injury, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, spinal stenosis, or a numerous other diseases or injuries our patients sustain.

As educators, case managers are charged with assisting patients and their families in understanding their conditions as well as the residual effects of an injury or chronic condition. In addition, case managers are central to providing the resources and motivation that enable patients to make the changes that will lead them to positive outcomes. As members of the health care team, case managers work collaboratively with the team to develop a plan of care that will set the direction and allow the patient to work toward reaching their maximum potential and regain control over their lives.

We all know that patients with chronic pain can have multiple issues and barriers that slow their progress toward improvement. Learning what those barriers are and working to break them down by understanding the individual’s physical and psychosocial issues, case managers begin to break the cycle that prevents progress.

A Focus on Chronic Pain, produced by the editorial staff of Case In Point, can be downloaded as one of the resources you reach to when working with patients. The tool provides steps to help someone begin to acknowledge their pain, encourages education, and points to strategies designed to provide the motivation needed to begin the process of self-management.

If by chance you don’t handle patients with chronic pain, feel free to download A Focus on Chronic Pain and share it with your family and friends who deal with someone with chronic pain. If you do use the tool, let us know how it was received and what recommendations you have to make it better.

See you next week!