Airing Pain 99: Transition Services for Adolescents with Chronic Pain

Explor­ing the chal­lenges and suc­cess­es that patients, par­ents and health­care pro­fes­sion­als encounter when pain in adolescents

This edi­tion was fund­ed by a grant by the Agnes Hunter Trust.

Going through ado­les­cence can be a dif­fi­cult process for any­one, but for young adults with chron­ic pain the dif­fi­cul­ties of these for­ma­tive years can become mul­ti­fac­eted. With 8% of young peo­ple in the 13–18 age range affect­ed by chron­ic pain (15,000 liv­ing with arthri­tis alone), the tran­si­tion to adult­hood, and the med­ical sup­port that accom­pa­nies it, is an impor­tant process. In this edi­tion of Air­ing Pain we explore the chal­lenges and suc­cess­es that patients, par­ents and health­care pro­fes­sion­als encounter when enter­ing this cru­cial period.

Pain man­age­ment con­sul­tant Dr Mary Rose and nurse Mandy Sim of the Roy­al Hos­pi­tal for Sick Chil­dren in Edin­burgh speak to Paul Evans about the meth­ods they use to make the tran­si­tion into adult­hood as sup­port­ive as pos­si­ble, as well as the impor­tance of edu­cat­ing patients, par­ents and schools on the biopsy­choso­cial aspects of pain and its management.

Dr Ali­son Bliss, pae­di­atric anaes­the­sia and chron­ic pain con­sul­tant at Leeds Children’s Hos­pi­tal, empha­sis­es the impor­tance of find­ing a bal­ance between cul­ti­vat­ing inde­pen­dence in young-adults with pain and help­ing them find the sup­port in their tran­si­tion­al period.

Paul also speaks to Dr Line Caes, psy­chol­o­gy lec­tur­er at Stir­ling Uni­ver­si­ty, touch­es on the nuances in deal­ing with how young peo­ple see them­selves in com­par­i­son to their peers and mak­ing the class­room a more accept­ing space.

Issues cov­ered in this pro­gramme include: Alco­hol, arthri­tis, chil­dren and young peo­ple, chron­ic pain as a con­di­tion in its own right, chron­ic pri­ma­ry pain, depres­sion, drug abuse and mis­use, fam­i­ly, men­tal health, pac­ing, peer sup­port, rela­tion­ships, self-harm and youth services.

Con­trib­u­tors:

• Dr Mary Rose, Con­sul­tant at the pain man­age­ment clin­ic at Edinburgh’s Sick Children’s Hospital
• Mandy Sim, Pain Nurse Sspe­cial­ist at Edinburgh’s Sick Children’s Hos­pi­tal pain man­age­ment clinic
• Dr Ali­son Bliss, Con­sul­tant in Pae­di­atric Anaes­the­sia and Chron­ic Pain at Leeds Children’s Hospital
• Dr Line Caes, Psy­chol­o­gy Lec­tur­er at Uni­ver­si­ty of Stirling’s School of Nat­ur­al Sci­ence, researcher in pae­di­atric psy­chol­o­gy and psy­cho­log­i­cal aspects of children’s pain.

More infor­ma­tion:

• Roy­al Hos­pi­tal for Sick Chil­dren Edin­burgh Charity
• Scot­tish Tran­si­tions Forum’s “Prin­ci­ples of Good Transition”
• Nation­al Insti­tute for Health and Care Excel­lence (NICE) guid­ance on tran­si­tion ser­vice.