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PIP assessor sitting in on online pain management

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2 years 4 months ago #265866 by Tessybel
It said under his name dhss pip. I do think that it is a bit like spying. I'm not sure it will affect my reassessment. I can't think why an assessor needs to learn about pain management but maybe it is the reason he's there. Has this happened to anyone else. I already feel reluctant to speak on a online meeting but this has made me even more reluctant. I'm wondering will he note down any of the participants comments and use it against them. My PIP assessor was very nice but I've read horror stories.
Thanks anyone who has opinion
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2 years 4 months ago #265868 by Tessybel
It is a NHS group. I think a good assessor would already have medical knowledge to know about these pain management techniques. I feel it is an intrusion on privacy, we post our names on the meeting and I'm sure our details will be easily accessible to him.
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2 years 4 months ago #265872 by TheHud
These programmes are specifically to help people manage their own pain, so unless this assessor was there to learn how to manage their own pain, they should not have been included in an open patient session. There are plenty of staff development programmes within hospitals carried out by acute and chronic pain management teams that they could have been privvy too,that do not involve patients.

I would suspect only one reason to be there, find ways to quantify levels of pain in a real situation and reasons why that pain is overcome. I declined to attend the pain management courses on the grounds I would drive everyone mad and it would be unfair to all the others to have me there. Reality is that I would be in too much pain to be sat chewing the fat and listening to others doing the same. If I thought an assessor was in the room, well chances are things may just get officially nasty.

I suspect this is a breach of patient confidentiality. Shall go discuss with hubby who is a pain management specialist.

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2 years 4 months ago #265879 by denby
Ooh TheHud, I am looking forward to his opinion! Another issue is that 7% of the population have 'different' liver enzymes which do not process many painkiller med properly, therefore standard doses may have little/no effect. But as sadly many doctors are unaware of this, they will disbelieve the patient who says the pain meds are not working for them. Incidentally among Autistic/Aspergers persons, it is approx 30% plus not 7% who have this problem.
I mention this often in the hope it will help people as it is so devastating to be in long-term pain AND be disbelieved.
Best wishes,
Denby
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2 years 4 months ago #265889 by TheHud
Hi Denby

Hubby says invites to outside health professionals are sometimes acceptable, those who are thinking of setting up their own programmes for example. However in all cases the patients involved must give permission in exactly the same way they are asked when a student is present at an appointment. In this case, this person would not be delivering pain management programmes, so he is unclear what the benefit would be to them attending what are essentially regarded as group therapy and learning sessions.

You are, as usual spot on regarding some pain meds in particular opiates. I have codeine and use it for slowing down a hyperactive gut, but not pain. It works for that, relaxing or bunging up lol. However, the understanding of pain management in the community is very bad, not much better with older consultants in some hospitals and areas. Hubby has been using Ketamine for eample, for years and more recently in chronic pain low dose naltroxone is showing extremely good results. There is also combi meds, again very little is understood about this area and as far as hubby is concerned, however it is delivered you always start with paracetamol because it seems to enhance whatever you put with it.

Unfortunately chronic pain management courses do not focus on medical management, they focus on mindfullness and other methods of distraction, which are also very effective and should be used in combination. This is not something you learn in a group, especially when you have had chronic debilitating pain for many years. I fear its like Minds Matter, it focuses on targets and thus on those who will benefit from a quick fix en mass. Not knocking Minds Matter, I have used them, it can help minor blips in mental health, but again long term chronic conditions require a singular taylored approach.

Our son has PDA, severe anxiety, phobias, OCD you name it and some physical problems not dealt with due to a restrictive access service for those with either severe mental health or physical disabilities. If you can't leave your house, for whatever reason, no effective help exists.

I went through, just finished over a year of online pain management physio, lovely chap but he admmited it just cannot work for people with long term widespread chronic pain and multiple comorbidities. Certainly having a DWP assessor in the room with the physio while online, would have contributed nothing; to my therapy, his management or the assessors ability to do their job. Unless it was to say these programmes do work regardless, so lets say benefit applicants have not completed all available avenues of treatment yet, if they have not completed a pain management programme, so all you get, if anything, is a short term award. This is the only thing I can see would come from an assessor being in the room, people with chronic pain who don't do a pain management programme, without very good documented reason, may be seen to be refusing, all reasonable treatments, even if they can't physically or mentally do one.
The following user(s) said Thank You: denby, LL26

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2 years 4 months ago #265894 by AliBee
I hasn’t been called the DHSS since 1988 when it became the DSS. It then became the DWP in 2001.
Are you sure it’s not just a name that a fellow attendee has chosen, to be ironic?

I would mention it to the event organiser and ask them to clarify the situation.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Misty, denby, TheHud, Angel

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