In this episode Andrew & Maxi chat with physiotherapists Janet Holly and Alex Chisholm. Both physiotherapists are experienced clinicians working in the area of persistent pain and were involved in the working group for Physiotherapy Alberta’s recent chronic pain toolkit.
In this first episode with Janet and Alex, we talk about chronic pain management. We chat about:
- Their journey in becoming interested in treating patients with chronic pain
- Why we need to ask more than a numerical pain rating scale with our patients
- Why we need to rethink labeling ‘fear avoidance behaviours’ in our patients
- Which health professionals get the most pain management education in their programs
- Why the language we use with patients is absolutely critical to our patients’ beliefs about pain
- The most common barriers faced by therapists integrating the biopsychosocial model into treatment
BIOS:
Alex Chisholm is a physiotherapist at Foothills Medical Center in Alberta. She has over 30 years’ experience as a clinician and has a special interest in treating patients with pain. Alex has completed the Certificate in Pain Management at the University of Alberta and is a Fellow of the Alberta division of the Canadian Federation of Clinical Hypnosis. She participated in the development of the chronic pain toolkit published by Physiotherapy Alberta. You can connect with Alex by visiting her LinkedIn profile.
Janet Holly is a Senior Physiotherapist at the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre with 27 years clinical experience and is also a Clinical Investigator at the Ottawa Health Research Institute – Clinical Epidemiology Program. She is a clinical specialist in pain sciences and is the Communication Liaison with the Pain Sciences Division. She participated in the development of the chronic pain toolkit published by Physiotherapy Alberta. Learn more about Janet Holly by visiting her LinkedIn profile.