Innovations in Pain Care for CALD Communities
The NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation’s first pain management education program for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities was a resounding success, with participants benefiting enormously from having self-management explained in their own language and ePPOC measures indicating widespread acceptance of the approach and impressive changes.
A collaborative effort, the CALD program was developed by the Pain Management Research Institute (PMRI) and facilitated by NSW ACI and multicultural health workers from New South Wales.
It has been translated into Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese and Greek, with the Chinese program the first cab off the rank. These language groups were selected because they are the most common foreign languages in the state, and other languages may be in the pipeline.
Professor Michael Nicholas, Director of Education and Pain Management Programs at the PMRI, says when patients from CALD communities have had limited schooling and interpreters have little understanding of the concepts they are translating, the chances of explaining self-management in a consultation are limited.
This can be overcome by training health workers in the CALD program who speak the patient’s own language.
“We did the same thing in Malaysia 15 years ago and the program is still running successfully today with Malay, Chinese and Indian patients,” he said.
“The approach is established and effective, the most important thing is that the education is conducted in the language the patient speaks by educators who have been appropriately trained.
“We are still in the trial phase and we are conducting evaluations in order to refine it, but we are excited to finally be able to offer CALD communities something that will benefit them.”
With a focus on self-management principles, the program is designed to help people understand pain, manage stress, eat well and sleep better to improve pain and learn how to exercise without making the pain worse.
Led by a health educator (a native speaker trained through the PMRI) it is delivered in a group environment with people from a similar cultural background.
To be eligible for the program patients must have had pain that interferes in daily life for more than six months, be independently mobile and be able to attend the program three hours once a week for six weeks. They must also be referred by their GP.
The first program in Chinese was delivered through Western Sydney Local Health District Multicultural Health Service in June and July, in association with Westmead Pain Management Clinic.
Three other programs have been completed in the Hunter and Concord for the Chinese population and at Westmead for the Arabic-speaking population. Further programs are planned for all of these areas in addition to southeastern and central Sydney and the Illawarra.