As a summary of the findings of her PhD research, Dr Pam Garton, in collaboration with RTW Matters, presented a series of 3 webinars which will particularly interest those who are keen to implement an authentic biopsychosocial framework within Personal Injury Management.
These recordings are available to view at Return to Work Matters https://www.rtwmatters.org/article/articles.php?topic_id=98
Webinar 1: Identification of Psychosocial risk
- explores the complexity of using psychosocial triage in Injury Management and
provides practical recommendations to develop and implement a customised triage
protocol to achieve early identification of those people at risk of delayed recovery due to psychosocial obstacles.
Webinar 2: Psychosocial Assessment is a core component of a biopsychosocial approach and comprehensive self-report assessment provides standardised identification and measurement of key psychosocial variables. This detail is required to tailor individualised biopsychosocial intervention, and to engage and motivate each client to adopt the necessary strategies to rebuild their health and work capacity.
Webinar 3: Biopsychosocial Injury Management – Injury Compensation schemes encourage a Biopsychosocial Approach however research shows that this has rarely been applied adequately. In this webinar, Dr Garton shares findings from her research to reveal the challenges found in its application, and which led to her recommendation that system-wide implementation is essential. In this webinar she outlines the knowledge, resources and processes necessary for an effective Biopsychosocial Approach and provides evidence of the potential for this to transform Personal Injury Management systems.
Please contact us if you would further information to help build a biopsychosocial framework specific to your requirements.
Over recent years Pam Garton has immersed herself in research at La Trobe University resulting in now being awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for her work into the implementation of an effective Biopsychosocial Approach in Workplace Rehabilitation. Her research included a comprehensive review of current literature and evaluation of a structured biopsychosocial program, to identify the essential components of an effective Biopsychosocial Approach.
Through her research, including comprehensive literature review, 1 qualitative and 3 quantitative studies, Pam identified the essential components and processes of an effective Biopsychosocial Approach. These are detailed in her thesis and led to the conclusion that an effective Biopsychosocial Approach can only be achieved through structured system-wide implementation.
The thesis is available to view or download in LaTrobe University Library http://hdl.handle.net/1959.9/570494
We are very pleased to now release our new Abilita Pain Questionnaire (APQ). This is a quick and powerful biopsychosocial assessment for the busy health professional.
It is derived from our original Musculoskeletal Injury assessment (Garton et al, Work, 53, 2016), with a reduced number of questions and refinement of domains. It is applicable in compensable or non-compensable circumstances and when the outcome goal is to restore wellbeing and reduce disability with or without resuming work.
The Initial Report includes the BPS domain chart plus scores for APQ, Pain Self Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ) and Orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire – Short Form (OMPSQ.SF).
The second page provides an explanation of each domain and their influence on pain. An APQ score over 25 indicates the person requires improved self-help strategies to address issues within high rating domains.
We anticipate this questionnaire will particularly suit practitioners who seek a pain-specific assessment and who value the domain chart as an evidence-informed strategy to engage their clients, trigger their BPS insight and collaboratively plan tailored intervention.
Visit Catalog for the Abilita Pain Questionnaire Package which includes the APQ Course plus 3-month access to the APQ assessment for an unlimited number of cases. The course outlines the unique qualities of the APQ that set it apart as the most practical and helpful tool for BPS assessment and pain management.
We are very excited to have now launched our Abilita Pain Coach course!
Why?
Well health and rehab professionals who have completed our Abilita Comprehensive Coaching course provide very positive feedback about the program, once they have become familiar with the coaching topics.
However, that course takes up to 8 hours to complete, which is a big commitment when you are not yet sure how much you are going to be able to use these resources.
For the new Abilita Pain Coach course we extracted the essentials from the full coaching course, presented the underpinning therapies to provide a quick and practical review, and included the teaching videos that we have been told make such a difference in picking up on delivery of the coaching topics.
You can commence the course and within 2 hours begin coaching your clients, with absolute confidence that they will engage with this process of learning to use self-care strategies to reduce their pain and disability.
So that's a great reason to be excited!
Visit Catalog for details of the course, including the content modules.
After using this self-care coaching with your clients with pain, you may like to also provide it to your clients with psychological conditions, fatigue or other chronic health conditions; so then enrol in Abilita Comprehensive Coaching (with 50% discount) and you will then breeze through it.
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