Stress, Pain and Recovery

Course Overview

Domain

Health and Social Sciences

Format

Short Course

Duration

2 days

Fee Subsidy

Up to 90% SF Funding

Health professionals are likely to work with patients who experience pain. A simplistic tissue-based view of pain is not adequate for the best patient care especially when the pain is persistent.

This 2-day workshop will allow participants to explore the role and interaction of neural, immune and endocrine systems on pain and recovery.

Who Should Attend

All health and medical professionals working with people who have pain
Health and medical professional educators
Other practitioners working with people with pain

"Lester’s talk inspired a lot of discussion long into the evening and still ongoing this morning, particularly about managing the challenges of applying some of these concepts. He really helped to reframe some aspects of persistent pain for me, in the context of pain vulnerability and response priming. I'm really excited to learn more during the workshop that he will be holding next year."

Kyle Wild

Clinic Manager & Senior Physiotherapist, UFIT Clinic

"Very relevant to clinical practice, topic is not covered even at post-graduate physiotherapy level. Lester was patient in his experience."

Lian Guojie

Principal Physiotherapist, Physio & Sole Clinic

"Thought provoking workshop that teaches you to explore the pain dimensions in different ways. Lester was also very encouraging towards participants asking questions and prompts us to think about how we can treat/see patients differently."

Tiang Poh Gek

Senior Physiotherapist, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital

What You Will Learn

Topic 1 - Body’s Protection System

The Body’s Protection System is complex and integrated, comprising of neuro-immune-endocrine interactions. Key elements of this system including important cells and mediators of the stress response will be presented.

Topic 2 – Neuro-immune-endocrine Plasticity

Plasticity and learning are key features of survival. Our life experiences, particularly early adverse events, can have a lasting impact on health and well-being. This is not only due to plasticity of neural structure and function, but also due to the plasticity in immune and endocrine function. Allostasis and allostatic loads are useful terms to describe how our physiology and behaviour react to stress. Examples will be used to illustrate this.

Topic 3 – Stress, Pain and Recovery

The impact of stress during pain and recovery has been apparent for a long time. The role of stressors including social stress on pain and tissue healing will be discussed.

Topic 4 – Application in Clinical Practice

Applying the psychoneuroimmunology to clinical practice may be a new concept. The Pain and Movement Reasoning Model will be briefly introduced as a tool to assist clinical reasoning. Simple and novel strategies for identifying physiological signs of stress and innovative interventions that have been shown to assist pain and recovery will be presented. This practical session will require some disrobing and some discomfort (i.e. sensory threshold or tolerance testing). While all participants are encouraged to participate, personal choices will be respected without prejudice.

Upon completion of the course, the participant should be able to:

Describe key elements and functions of the neuro-immune-endocrine interactions that preserve the body’s homeostasis
Explain using a psycho-neuro-immunological approach, how early life events might make someone more pain vulnerable
Appropriately apply the concepts of stress biology to clinical examples
Identify equipment that can be used to assess for pain sensitivity
Describe the process for testing centrally modulated responses to discomfort

Advanced Preparation

View videoclip “Understanding pain in less than 5 minutes”
Read “Is it time to reframe how we care for people with non-traumatic musculoskeletal pain?”

Teaching Team

Lester Jones

Senior Lecturer, Health and Social Sciences, Singapore Institute of Technology

Schedule

Day 1

TIME	Topic
9:00 am - 6:00 pm	Registration
	Topic 1: Body's Protection System
	Break
	Topic 2: Neuro-immune-endocrine Plasticity
	Lunch
	Topic 3: Stress, Pain and Recovery
	Break
	Topic 3: Stress, Pain and Recovery
	Small group – reflect on application to current practice
	End of Day

Day 2

TIME	Topic
9:00 am - 6:00 pm	Review key points from Day 1
	Topic 4: Application in Clinical Practice - Translating research into practice
	Break
	Topic 4: Apply Pain Assessment Strategies
	Lunch
	Topic 4: Apply Pain Assessment Strategies
	Break
	Assessment – small group discussion then presentation
	Summing up
	End of Day

Certificate and Assessment

A Certificate of Participation will be issued to participants who:

Attend 75% of the course
Undertake and pass non-credit bearing assessment (during course)

Fee Structure

The full fee for this course is S$2,398.00.

Category	After SF Funding
Singapore Citizen (Below 40)	S$719.40
Singapore Citizen (40 & Above)	S$279.40
Singapore PR / LTVP+ Holder	S$719.40
Non-Singapore Citizen	S$2,398.00 (No Funding)