Work is the context

For many years I’ve worked in pain management and tried to help people return to work as the completion of their rehabilitation. Why? Well, apart from it being a great thing from an insurer or funder’s point of view, it’s actually what people want.
Having been through my own return to work rehabilitation after my [...]

Return to work: Clinical judgements and evidence-based decisions

Followingon from yesterdays post - qualitative analysis of comments that rehabilitation providers made about factors they thought important and modifiable in helping an individual return to work.

For each factor that was analysed, the participants were asked ‘how and why is this factor important?’ Using ‘Leximancer’, a text analysis software, the relationships between various terms [...]

Return to work: Clinical judgements and evidence-based decisions

It’s not often that we find an article that draws on clinical knowledge rather than directly from experimental findings, but when we do, it can add something really helpful as in this article by Heidi Muenchberger, Elizabeth Kendall, Peter Grimbeek and Travis Gee.
Now I’m definitely a proponent of evidence-based management - but in very complex [...]

Return to work and chronic pain

Again this post is a bit of a reflective one, but also refers to the literature a wee bit too…
I’ve posted before about the importance of support in the workplace for people returning to work…and of the value of work to people living with chronic pain.
How about some of the wider issues that may [...]

On the nature of rehabilitation

This is a very personal post today. I’m almost at the end of a 14 month rehabilitation programme to recover from postconcussion syndrome. 26 February 2007 I hit my head on the edge of the door of our 4WD when I was getting in. I had pushed myself up on the door [...]

A randomized controlled trial of exposure in vivo for patients with spinal pain reporting fear of work-related activities

DOI:10.1016/j.ejpain.2007.11.001
The complex question of whether to integrate experimental therapeutic interventions into daily clinical practice is one that has caught many therapists out. A case in point is the use of laterality and visualised movements for CRPS where, in one clinic, it was found that of the 10 participants recruited, only 4 had actually adhered [...]