Photo By Jason Bortz | Heather Williams, a physician’s assistant in Naval Hospital Pensacola’s Pain...... read more read more
September is Pain Awareness Month and Naval Hospital Pensacola’s (NHP) Pain Clinic continues to use innovative methods to help active duty service members with pain management.
The clinic will also be expanding services to family members and retirees enrolled to NHP in the very near future.
“Our goal in the Pain Clinic is to treat chronic pain patients with alternative methods that will improve their overall quality of life,” said Lt. Valerie Vick, clinic manager for the Pain Clinic.
The Pain Clinic uses an interdisciplinary approach that combines psychology and physical treatments to help patients with chronic pain without using pain medications or surgeries. Pain medications such opioids can cause serious side effects if abused and can cause dependency with some patients.
“A lot of chronic pain related symptoms can now be treated without opioids and unnecessary surgeries,” said Lt. Cmdr. Scott Lawson, a pain management physician with the Pain Clinic. “Our focus is a multidisciplinary approach to pain management in the Pain Clinic that will help our patients learn to manage their pain, which may involve a combination of different types of methods.”
Heather Williams, a physician’s assistant in the Pain Clinic, works with patients to break what she refers to as the chronic pain cycle. According to a diagram that Williams displays throughout the clinic, chronic pain can cause decreased activity that can attribute to negative emotions, avoidance withdrawal and distress disability that can all lead back to more chronic pain.
“Chronic pain is often a cycle that is hard to break,” said Williams. “We give our patients the physical and psychological tools they need to break that cycle and get on the road to recovery.”
Some of the alternative methods used at NHP’s Pain Clinic include physical therapy, auricular acupuncture, trigger point injections, nutrition and even Botox injections for migraine headaches. According to Williams, the Botox paralyzes small parts of the muscles in the head that can contribute to migraines. The Botox treatment is for severe patients with migraine symptoms that last at least 15 days a month.
Patients who suffer from chronic pain can also develop emotional or psychological problems such as irritability, low mood, loss of pleasure, anxiety, poor sleep and changes in appetite. Chronic pain can significantly impact a person’s work performance and career. The Pain Clinic also works with patients to help them understand and manage the emotional stress of pain.
“It’s important to learn how to cope with the stress associated with chronic pain,” said Williams. “Learning stress coping methods will help patients break the pain cycle and help them develop stress tools they can use for the rest of their life.”
To be seen at the Pain Clinic, active duty service members need a referral from their primary care manager (PCM) and should not be within 12 months of retiring or within six months of changing duty stations. The Pain Clinic will soon be available to family members and dependents enrolled to NHP, but will also need a referral from their PCM.
Established in 1826, Naval Hospital Pensacola's mission is to deliver high quality health care to ensure a medically ready force and a ready medical force through strategic partnerships and innovation. The command is comprised of the main hospital and 11 branch health clinics across five states. To find out more, visit http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/pcola/Pages/default.aspx or download the command’s mobile app (keyword: Naval Hospital Pensacola).
| Date Taken: | 09.25.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2018 14:09 |
| Story ID: | 294324 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 243 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, NHP’s Pain Clinic: New and Innovative Ways to Fight Pain, by Jason Bortz, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
