Case formulation – the next few steps

Over the past few days I’ve been writing about case formulation because in pain management, it’s rare to find only one single causal factor that is influencing either the pain or the disability. Most times we are looking at many factors coming from all three areas of the biopsychosocial model.
In each person, the relationships between [...]

Some readings!

Here are a couple of readings on case formulation…
Enjoy ‘em!
This one is a chapter from a book ‘Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Mental Health Care’, this chapter is written by Alec Grant, Jem Mills, Ronan Mulhern and Nigel Short, and discusses cognitive behavioural case formulation as a method for strengthening the therapeutic relationship, as well as [...]

Case Formulation – a diagram illustrating the first stage

This is an illustration of the first step of case formulation – identifying patterns from the data collected, using a range of ways to obtain the information so that it can be relied upon for both accuracy and to cover the range of possible features of the person’s presentation.

Case formulation: Abductive reasoning applied

Before moving on any further with the ATOM (abductive theory of method) as used in case formulation, I need to define what is data and what is phenomenon. Haig defines data as individual pieces of information, often unique to the person or situation, whereas phenomenon are patterns amongst those pieces of data that form [...]

Inspirational!

I thought I’d heard of most things, but this one has me inspired!

You’re never too old to dance, nor too immobile. I discovered bellydance coming up to two years ago – best remedy for my back pain that I ever found!

…a musical interlude

It’s Friday! Another week goes by, and I’m out scouting the internet for health-related trivia for your pre-weekend viewing pleasure.
I came across this video a couple of days ago – and I’m so sorry for my colleagues who can’t get YouTube at work, you simply MUST see this clip, especially if you’re an anaesthetist!  Have [...]

An introduction to case formulation

One definition of case formulation is ‘Case formulation aims to describe a person’s presenting problems and use theory to make explanatory inferences about causes and maintaining factors that can inform interventions’. What this means is that it is essentially a story not just to describe, but explain, how a person’s problem has developed, and how [...]

Revelation: I’m experimenting on patients!!

Actually, the heading should read ‘I’m experimenting on with patients!
Does that not help?  Sorry, perhaps I should unpack what I mean!
Chronic pain, or actually, chronic disability associated with pain, is multifactorial.  What that means is there are many different factors that influence how and why a person has chronic pain and disability.  It also means [...]

Great group activities resource

I stumbled across this great site full of activities for developing group dynamics through experiential activities.  There are loads of free downloadable pdf docs on activities that are fun, require very little in the way of materials, and are pretty simple to carry out (well, as simple as any group activity is!) and can be [...]

Self management: Helping a person become their own healthcare expert

and how we can help
Health care in many places hasn’t moved an awful lot from a ‘patch ‘em up and send ‘em out’ mentality.  This is a great approach if you’re basically healthy, have acute appendicitis, and a quick recovery.  It’s not so good if you have chronic pain, are having to learn to live [...]