In this webinar, patient advocate Keith Meldrum discusses the patient voice and why it’s valuable for health care providers to integrate the patient narrative when providing care and treatment for people living with chronic pain.
Chronic pain is complex and treating patients with persistent pain often requires a different approach than what many health care providers may have been taught. It’s well understood that the biopsychosocial model is an effective framework to consider when helping people manage and live better with their pain. One of the most important elements to include in this approach is considering the patient story, or narrative, early in treatment. The World Health Organization has underlined the need for an active and participatory role for patients in order to enhance their wellbeing and to improve the efficiency of the health‐care system (World Health Organization. Standards for Health Promotion in Hospitals. Barcelona: WHO, 2004).
Validating the patient’s pain experience is foundational to help people move forward in living better with their pain. Including people in their care and treatment helps lay a foundation for effective pain self-management. Similarly, chronic pain patients are likely to be more open to self-management when they are part of a holistic, inclusive health care environment.
Funding for this program is provided by the Government of B.C
Keith Meldrum has lived with chronic pain since 1986 following a near fatal single vehicle accident. After years of surgeries and ineffective pain management procedures, Keith was referred to St. Paul’s Hospital Interventional Pain Clinic in 2004 as a candidate for a type of neuromodulation therapy known as spinal cord stimulation (SCS). He received his SCS in early 2005 and was first introduced to the basic concepts of pain self-management. He has found both to be helpful in managing his pain.
Keith was previously a member of Pain BC’s Board of Directors, where he served for six years as the Vice Chair and the Chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee, until his term ended in May 2018. Since then, he has remained an advocate for people living with pain. In September 2018, Keith presented a workshop at the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) 2018 World Congress. He was also invited to be an inaugural member of IASP’s Global Patient Alliance. He has been interviewed by a number of chronic pain health care providers and will be presenting at the 2019 San Diego Pain Summit.
Keith is a civil engineer technologist in Kelowna, BC. He is married to his wife Barb, has a 25-year old stepson Chris, and an Australian Labradoodle named Parker.
800 – 525 West 8th Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1C6.
1-844-430-0818
