Wednesday, 17 August 2022

Chronic pain

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (2067)

Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 7 September 2021:

My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health and relates to chronic pain.

One in five Victorians are affected by chronic pain. Nationally over 3 million Australians live with chronic pain, which results in more than $73 billion in lost productivity annually.

It is debilitating.

Despite its prevalence, sufferers continue to feel stigmatised, particularly when interacting with medical professionals.

Interactions can involve ignorance or the thinly veiled suspicion of addiction. Patients often feel forced to prove their diagnosis is legitimate, over and over again.

Honestly, it’s just not fair, where life is already made harder by this pain, for that suffering to be compounded by stigma from the very professionals meant to understand and help.

So the action I seek is that the minister take specific steps to address this problem and enhance the professional understanding of chronic pain via dedicated education and training across the Victorian health system.