“Healing Tools” summaries are a collection of evidence-based resources to help providers and patients use integrative health approaches to improve health and wellbeing.
Educational videos about common issues in pain management for patients and providers
This tool is for:
- Patients and their family members
- Providers
This tool was created by:
- Defense & Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management, military health system, and Veterans Health Administration
- “Understanding Pain,” is based on an Australian concept for pain education from Live Action Clinic.
SUMMARY
What is this tool for?
Patients suffer and society pays a high cost in health care expenses, lost income, and productivity due to inadequate treatment of pain. Opioid addiction is partly due to inadequate treatment of pain.
These videos help patients and providers better understand and manage pain. Two videos in the series are especially helpful:
- “Understanding Pain,” a video for patients and providers
- “The Chronification of Pain,” a video for providers
Understanding Pain
Everyone will have some pain in his/her life. This video helps you understand pain and what you can do about it. It provides a whole-person approach to healing and managing pain based on:
- Medical options
- Thoughts and emotions
- Diet and lifestyle
- History of the pain and your life
- Physical activity
Video length: 6:00 minutes
The Chronification of Pain
The progression from acute to chronic pain is complex and often avoidable. This video provides a bio-psychosocial overview of the how pain becomes chronic and opportunities for providers to intervene. Key recommendations for providers are to:
- Evaluate and address the various impacts of chronic pain:
- Emotional
- Physical
- Functional
- Interpersonal
- Develop a patient-specific intervention plan that addresses the patient’s position in the pain cycle.
Video length: 7:29 minutes
How can providers use this tool?
Providers can recommend “Understanding Pain” to patients and view “The Chronification of Pain” to learn ways to better manage pain and to understand how pain impacts all areas of a person’s life.
How does this contribute to an integrative approach?
Combining conventional medicine, self-care, and complementary and alternative medicine can help patients achieve optimal healing and health. Effective pain management requires this type of whole-person approach.
What does the evidence say about this tool?
The videos augment the Joint Pain Education Project, a standardized pain management curriculum for primary care providers developed by the United States Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. While developed for use by those in the military and veterans, it is general enough to be useful for anyone suffering with chronic pain and providers who deal with chronic pain.
While all the information in the video is evidence-based, the tool itself has not been specifically tested to quantify its value in patient care.
The curriculum is based on the Army Pain Management Task Force’s 2010 recommendations for a comprehensive pain management strategy for soldiers and other patients dealing with acute and chronic pain. The recommendations are based on:
- Site visits at:
- Military medical centers, hospitals, and health clinics
- Veterans Health Administration hospitals
- Civilian hospitals and other facilities
- Interviews with:
- Clinical subject matter experts
- Medical staff
- Data from:
- Regional Medical Commands
- Review of medical literature
- Review of military policies and regulations
Read the task force’s final report.
Although they were created with a military and veteran population in mind, the videos are applicable to all patients coping with pain.
Who created this tool?
The Defense & Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management, the military health system, and the Veterans Health Administration in the United States collaborated on the pain videos.
But the “Understanding Pain” video is based on a video originally developed in Australia by Live Action Clinic, a chiropractic, podiatric biomechanics, and functional neuro-rehabilitation practice in Australia. The original video is also available free at this link.
The Defense & Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management leverages evidence, clinical expertise, and collaboration to develop and communicate recommendations to support pain management practice, education, and research for the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Veterans Health Administration. It’s part of the U.S. Department of Defense. Its resources are publicly available.
ABOUT THESE INTEGRATIVE HEALTH TOOLS
At Healing Works Foundation, we believe that achieving optimal health and wellbeing requires an integrative health approach—one that combines and coordinates conventional medicine, self-care, and complementary and alternative medicine.
Translating Evidence into Action
The goal of these summaries is to help providers and patients learn about and access evidence-based integrative health tools.
Disclosures:
Healing Works Foundation is a nonprofit organization and does not profit from any of the tools featured in these summaries.
Patients: Contact your provider before starting any new health program. Show him/her these resources.