Member News – June – 2016
Galician Rheumatological League
In June 2016 Galician Rheumatological League attended a workgroup of the Galician Commission of Pain from the Health Ministry. One of the points addressed pain in children. Already 86 % of patients have their pain assessed with a graphic scale. In some of the most important cities of our autonomic region, an e-interconsultation is being set up between the general practitioners’ centres and pain units. An auto-evaluation of the macro-document from the Spanish National Health System regarding the comprehensive strategy of the approach of pain shows that these instructions are almost completely being followed. They agreed that GPs must be educated about the right questions to ask about pain and that not all the health professionals have complete access to the patient’s history.
In July, 2 members participated in a summer course in Escorial, Madrid on “The patient with pain, living the present, constructing a future: imagine a world without pain”, organized by the Complutense University of Madrid.
Chronic pain was declared as an illness in 2010 by the United Nations. In Spain, 6 – 8 millions of persons have it. Despite the fact that sufferers have right to a treatment, this pandemic is still not being approached in a holistic way. This new series of courses from the University Rey Juan Carlos of Madrid wants to change this.
Speakers insisted on the importance of:
- The Excellence of a care model centered on the patient, as essential axis in order to reach a holistic approach.
- The need for media coverage to put the issue of pain on everyone’s lips, because pain – even if benign – can compromise life and certainly very much compromises the quality of life.
- The right of all residents of the country to equal access to pain treatment. Therefore, the Ministry of Health creates frameworks on “Strategies of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases” and “Strategies of Chronicity”, or the framework document addressing pain encompassed within the latter.
There was a presentation on special hospital management, in the Hospital of Guadarrama, which absolutely centers on the patient, called “training” of the patient to emphasize the idea of accompaniment, voluntary and conscious actions and shared decision-making, going beyond the mere concept of patient education.
This model considers the nursing team as coach which builds, with the patient and across multiple instruments, a path of strengthening, empowerment and awareness; always accompanied in the process by specialized professionals and in the secure environment of the hospital. There is a real connection with the primary care centers to which patients are returned for their follow-up. There is a “school of caregivers” who are individually trained and whose needs are taken into account, even beyond the patient. This model focuses on the idea that therapeutic closeness is needed to “understand” the full extent of the evidence-based and good quality information required by the patient, in order to become an active and empowered expert, able to share decisions with his medical team.
The two images below show our LRG representative, in July, at another Summer Course in the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid “MIRADAS HACÍA EL DOLOR”, where our member and expert patient, Mr. Fran Carreira presented a conference about the paper of the associations of patients with pain, and also he took the opportunity to engage the participants in the campaign #releasethepain of The Red Balloon Project”.
