Paediatric Chronic Pain Service

The South Australian Paediatric Chronic Pain Service, with a dedicated multi-disciplinary team, will allow for a coordinated outpatient and community management of children and young people with chronic pain. The team will work together with each child and family to formulate a pain management plan and provide communication and coordination to the family, carers, hospital and community based health services. The team will provide education and resources to empower patients and their families to participate in their own care to the highest degree possible. The progress of each patient will be monitored with the ultimate aim of restoring each child to their functional best and in the care of local community services.

Our Vision

That all South Australian children with chronic pain have access to care that is consumer focussed, consistent, equitable, culturally sensitive and based on best practice to maximise quality of life.

Aims

The key aim of the Paediatric Chronic Pain Service is to implement a dedicated, coordinated multidisciplinary pain management service for children and young people in South Australia.

This service will deliver:

• Holistic care that enables children and young people experiencing chronic pain to develop their greatest potential and experience their best quality of life.
• An integrated understanding of the child’s physical and mental experiences that promotes awareness of systemic factors contributing to their experience of pain.
• A state-wide referral pathway to improve collaborative and effective working relationships between the primary, secondary and tertiary health systems.
• Treatment options that are consistent with up-to-date clinical evidence and promote these options across all health care sectors while improving access to specialist advice for the primary health care sector to better manage children with chronic pain.

Education in order for children, and their care givers to develop greater capacity to self-manage their condition and ease the impact of chronic pain on their daily life.

Who is eligible for this service?

• Children and young people aged up to 18 years
• Children and young people with pain persisting longer than 3 months
• Children and young people with pain which has significant impact on life eg sleep, self-care, mobility, work or school attendance, recreation, relationships and emotions.
• Children and young people who have had management of their pain in the primary care or hospital sector with insufficient success.

Who can refer?

• Paediatricians, Medical Officers, Specialists
• General Practitioners

What is the referral process?

Referral for assessment by the Paediatric Chronic Pain Service can be processed using the link below.

Once the referral form has been completed, it can be faxed to 8161 6246.

Once a referral is received, assessment questionnaires are sent to the young person’s parents/caregivers in order to gain further information. After obtaining all information a determination is made as to whether the Paediatric Chronic Pain Service is the most appropriate service to address concerns being raised.

If accepted, an appointment will be sent to the family.

If the referral is not accepted, the family and referrer will be provided with alternative options.

Where and when is assessment held?

Multidisciplinary assessment is held on Friday mornings from 9.00am to 12.30pm at the Women’s and Children's Hospital in General Outpatient Clinics (level 1).

Outpatient appointments are held in the Allied Health Department on the Ground Floor, Good Friday Building.

Throughout the year, staff from the Paediatric Chronic Pain Service host online health support ‘text chats’ for adolescents (aged 10-18) and parents. Anyone can attend who would like the opportunity to ask questions and learn about useful strategies and resources to better manage chronic pain. To find out more please see the flyer in the link below:

To find out the dates of the next chat, please contact the Paediatric Chronic Pain Service by emailing the team on Health:PaediatricChronicPainService@sa.gov.au and we will send you a registration form. The registration form and the chat rules can also be found in the links below:

** <Link to: Adolescent Registration Form + Parent Registration Form + Chat Rules>

Phone

Service Mobile: 0481 900 577

Email

Health.PaediatricChronicPainService@sa.gov.au

Address

Paediatric Chronic Pain Service
Women’s and Children’s Hospital
Allied Health
72 King William Street
North Adelaide 5006

The Paediatric Chronic Pain Service consists of a coordinator, a physician, a physiotherapist, and a psychologist, and they can be best contacted through the service mobile (0481 900 577) or email (Health.PaediatricChronicPainService@sa.gov.au).