In New Zealand most people who have been off work with chronic pain, and receive compensation from ACC, will have been a participant in some sort of fitness programme. It’s almost a rite of passage for people to have a programme of functional restoration before or during an attempted return to work once the person has been off work for around 3 – 6 months.
There are a lot of different types of programme available:
- two of the Prof Mick Sullivan’Goal attainment’ programmes for sub-acute pain,
- Functional restoration programme – for sub-acute pain, involving activity with some ‘education’
- Pain management psychological services – for psychological strategies for pain management
- Activity focus programme – for chronic pain, involving activity and cognitive behavioural therapy approach for self management
- Multidisciplinary programme – a three-week intensive interdisciplinary programme with a cognitive behavioural approach, including reactivation
HealthSkills Blog 