Painaustralia is Australia’s leading pain advocacy body working to improve the quality of life of people living with pain, their families and carers, and to minimise the social and economic burden of pain on individuals and the community.
3.4M for the 3.4M
June 24
Lachlan Townend is a physio who lives on the Gold Coast and who knows what it’s like to live with chronic pain.
This month, from the 16th – 22nd June, Lachlan is going to run 3.4 miles per day to raise awareness for the 3.4 million people in Australia who live with chronic pain and raise money for Painaustralia, the peak advocacy body working to improve the quality of life of people living with pain.
Painaustralia and Pain Foundation Pinnacles Pain Sector Awards Dinner
NSW Parliament House 8th May 2024
We would like to thank everyone who attended the Painaustralia and the Pain Foundation Pinnacles Pain Sector Awards dinner earlier this month at NSW Parliament House. The awards acknowledged some of the very hard work carried out by clinicians, consumers, and the media to address and highlight chronic pain. We would like to thank journalists Sarah Macdonald and Sophie Scott who helped make the night a great success and the MPs who attended and provided their support including our host NSW Minister for Medical Research David Harris, Minister for Women Jodie Harrison, Minister for Health Ryan Park and MPs Tim James and Matt Kean.
We would like to congratulate our worthy winners:
- Most Impactful Innovation in Pain Care- Tina McIntosh - Brain Changer- Boost Recovery Program.
- Best Multi-Disciplinary Care Program- Dean Minchington - Pain Education and Management Program.
- Best Media Story- Bella Macey - for raising awareness of CRPS by sharing her story on A Current Affair and other national media.
- Best Consumer Awareness Campaign - Chronic Pain Australia - National Pain Awareness Week 2023.
- Consumer Advocate of the year - Lauren Cardell - a former police officer who mentors emergency service workers about pain and its impacts.
Painaustralia at Parliament House
in Canberra
September 2023 Image credit: idphoto.com.au
Last week Painaustralia gathered together with consumers, politicians, and members of the pain sector on the lawns of the Australian Parliament House in Canberra to ask for better multidisciplinary care so that all people in chronic pain can access the allied health and treatment services they need.
At our event, we asked the Federal Government to provide funding to increase the number of allied health visits to 10 per year.
We want to thank the many politicians who attended and spoke at our event, our sponsors, and most importantly the consumers who shared their stories on the day.
Painaustralia also held a showcase inside Parliament House attended by various politicians and health department officials to demonstrate how multidisciplinary care is carried out.
We want to thank all those who attended and supported us for helping make this such a successful day!
To find out more, go to www.walkmypain.com.au
My Pain Story: Benjamin Nihill
June 2023
The youngest member of our Consumer Advisory Group, Benjamin Nihill, speaks to CEO Giulia Jones about his pain story.
Despite facing a challenging setback in 2020 during his ADF training, when he got diagnosed with fibromyalgia, Ben has demonstrated remarkable resilience and rebuilt his life from the ground up.
His story serves as a testament to the power of determination and the ability to overcome obstacles.
Our Latest Media Release
Chronic Pain consumers recognised in Federal Budget, so much more to be done.
15/05/24
Last night’s national Budget has recognised the needs of people living with chronic pain and Painaustralia will continue our national conversation on this invisible condition which steals so much from people’s lives.
We are very grateful to the Federal Government which will provide assistance for Painaustralia to continue to undertake communication and awareness work for improvements to the treatment and lives of the 3.4 million Australians living with chronic pain as part of the early detection, prevention and management of chronic conditions.
We know that people with chronic pain take years to get diagnosed and need to see fundamental change and much more research to fund improved treatments. At Painaustralia we will continue to have this conversation with governments and the broader community until every person with chronic pain is seen, heard, respected, and appropriately treated so that pain can no longer steal people’s lives from them.
We also acknowledge the following items to be funded in the Budget which will assist the one in five people over 25 living with chronic pain:
- $22.1 million over two years from 2024–25 to continue support for preventive health and chronic disease research including patient and clinician services for Australians with chronic conditions, in support of the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030
- $49.1 million over four years from 2024–25 for gynecology consultations of 45 minutes or longer with patients who have complex conditions such as endometriosis and pelvic pain.
- $71.7 million over four years from 2024–25 to provide wrap around care for people with severe and/or complex needs in primary care settings, through design and delivery of mental health multidisciplinary services
- $480.2 million over five years for cheaper medicines to reduce patient costs and improve access to medicines.
- $151.1 million over five years from 2023–24, as part of the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement, to increase the Dose Administration Aids cap to 90 per week.
- $318.0 million over five years from 2023–24 as part of the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement for PBS general co-payments to not be indexed until 2030.
- $2.6 million in 2024–25 to support patient care improvement and general practitioner services, health professional education, condition awareness and digital resources for childhood dementia, juvenile arthritis, stroke, rare diseases and epilepsy.
While Painaustralia acknowledges the funding provided for consumers in this year’s Budget, we will continue to press for further support for multidisciplinary care for consumers who live with chronic pain including:
- increasing the number of allied health visits under a CDM Referral to 10 per year;
- supporting the development and delivery of specialist chronic pain education and training for health professionals in the primary care setting; and
- supporting the use of the Medicare Benefits Schedule CDM Framework to treat and manage chronic pain not only associated with chronic disease but, also with other medical conditions and, as a condition in its own right.
There is so much to do to change the lives of the millions of Australians in every café, every supermarket, in every bus and in every lunchroom who are struggling to cope every day because of unending pain conditions.
We thank the government for continuing this conversation, however there is so still much more to be done.
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