Improving Pain Management for Indigenous Australians

The NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation has launched a guide Telehealth consultations with Aboriginal people for pain management, to help clinicians working in pain clinics optimise outcomes for Indigenous Australians.

Although the guide has been developed specifically for telehealth consultations, it has broader application for face-to-face meetings as well.

There is a strong link between chronic pain and lower socio-economic status, putting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities at higher risk of living with painful conditions.

Culturally appropriate education about managing pain will be very important for Indigenous Australians, to educate not only individuals but to begin the process of educating families and communities about pain management.

The NSW ACI guide includes many helpful tips, such as encouraging a community or health worker and family members to be present during consultations, and to speak in a friendly and conversational way.

It also recommends clinicians build the role of Aboriginal service providers into management plans and recognise the need to develop trust with the patient and their family, to overcome a general mistrust of government services and systems.

Clinicians may also find the following useful, both of them downloadable from our Painaustralia website: 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning and ‘Yarn with me’: applying clinical yarning to improve clinician-patient communication in Aboriginal health care.