Chronic Pain Management Program
Our Specialized Care
The Chronic Pain Management Program at Children's Specialized Hospital promotes the wellness of adolescents and young adults with chronic pain by teaching strategies to manage pain and encourage functional activity. The inpatient Chronic Pain Management Program is typically for children and adolescents with chronic pain who continue to have significant pain and difficulties with daily function despite a period of consistent outpatient therapies.
Our Individualized Approach
This evidence-based program is typically over a four week period, with focus on regaining function and using one's body in a normal way. The approach to treatment of chronic pain at Children's Specialized Hospital includes intense physical and occupational therapy and integrated mental health intervention. Treatment may include:
- Aquatic therapy
- Child life therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Parent education and support
- Patient care coordination
- Physical therapy
- Psychology
- Recreational therapy
During the program, the child and family also participate in family psychoeducational support sessions to provide a better understanding of chronic pain and strategies for families to use to support the functionality of the patient.
The focus of the therapies in the Chronic Pain Management Program are to manage pain through:
- Increasing endurance and strength
- Patient/family education about effective coping strategies
- Use of the affected parts of the body
- Desensitization to reduce allodynia (pain from stimuli that typically does not cause pain, such as light touch or temperature change)
Additionally, recreation events for the patient and family encourage community reintegration, encourage appropriate peer interaction and social activities as well as assist in transition to home/community life. School tutoring is also provided on-site as needed. Our goal is for each child to return home to all normal activities, including school and extracurricular involvement, without any physical modifications.
Our specialized team focuses on treating conditions such as, but not limited to:
- Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome (AMPS)
- Chronic Abdominal Pain
- Chronic Migraine Headaches
- Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)
- Fibromyalgia
- Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
- Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy
- Reflex Neuropathic Dystrophy
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