Formerly Southern DHB Persistent Pain Service

The Persistent Pain Service is an outpatient service made up of specialist healthcare professionals experienced and trained in the management of long-term pain conditions. Persistent pain is classified as pain that has lasted more than three months and can affect all ages. All clinics and education sessions are held in the Fraser Services – Te Kākahu outpatient clinic in the Fraser Building at Dunedin Hospital, although telehealth is available if travel is a barrier.  It is really helpful if before being referred to the Persistent Pain Service you ask your referring doctor to include your email address or you contact the Persistent Pain Service administrator to give your email address if you have one. Please note that the administrators phone is often diverted to voicemail. Please leave a detailed message and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

When the Persistent Pain Service receives your doctor's referral you will be sent a questionnaire. If your email address has been supplied this questionnaire will be emailed to you, if not it will be posted.  If you have access to the internet, you will find it much easier to complete the questionnaires on a tablet, laptop, PC or mobile phone via a personalised link to a website.  The paper copy posted in the envelope provided is acceptable, but slower to arrive at the Persistent Pain Service. Your referral cannot be accepted until the questionnaire is returned. These questionnaires are used in many Persistent Pain Services across New Zealand and Australia. As well as contact details the questionnaires give us information about how long you have had pain, how it started, and baseline information of how it has affected your lifestyle and wellbeing. These questionnaires are part of a holistic assessment process using internationally recognised validated assessment tools and form part of your clinical assessment. If, for whatever reason, you have difficulty filling out the questionnaire please contact the Persistent Pain Service or your GP office. It is also really important that you provide details of all medications. The questionnaires need to be returned before your referral can be triaged. 

The Dunedin Persistent Pain Service has treatment approaches that are evidence based and in line with worldwide trends in pain management. The mixture of specialised professionals provides a holistic approach to managing pain which can affect many aspects of a person’s life. The aim of the service, where possible, is to guide the patient towards independent management of their pain condition and to enable them to have a more fulfilling life.

Usually, rehabilitation strategies are as important or more important as medication approaches so education is provided in both individual and group settings. All suggested interventions are discussed with the patient to enable them to make an informed choice of direction.

The Persistent Pain Service team is innovative and keen to explore international advances in pain medicine and pain management, so from time to time new approaches will be tried or offered.

The Persistent Pain Service team comprises pain medicine specialists, Clinical Psychologists, Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists..

Management of complex pain problems requires a multidisciplinary approach to:

·         prescribe and adjust medications.

·         provide education about the nature of the problem.

·         provide rehabilitation to improve quality of life and performance of daily activities. 

The Persistent Pain Team

·         Luciana Blaga, Senior Occupational Therapist

·         Tracey Hogarty, Physiotherapist

·         David Williams, Physiotherapist and Clinical Coordinator

·         Dr Genevieve Iversen PhD, Clinical Psychologist

·         Dr Liz Baker PhD, Clinical Psychologist

·         Jeff Ji, Physiotherapist

·         Specialist consultants below