I’ve lived with chronic pain for over 26 years now and I know how important it is for me to have a good team in place to help me; especially when I experience severe pain flare ups.  But having a team will accomplish very little if I weren’t willing to be the captain of my own team.  I really need to implement all the strategies that I help others develop and “practice what I preach.”

There is significant research evidence that a multidisciplinary team approach leads to the best treatment outcomes for chronic pain management.  Unfortunately, we live in a healthcare culture that sometimes can not, or will not, find a way to deliver this type treatment approach.  Sometimes lack of financial resources is cited as the reason and sometimes in certain communities it is lack of appropriate healthcare resources.

However, a more troubling scenario is when the treatment disciplines—medical, mental health, alternative, and addiction—start competing with each other instead of working together for the best interest of the patient.  I’ve spent most of my professional career trying to build collaborative teams that work together to provide the best possible treatment outcomes. 

Unfortunately, I have often run up against what I call a “Turf War” mentality where everyone is fighting over patients.  I like to remind all of my fellow healthcare providers that we don’t have to fight with each other because like it or not, there is enough pain and suffering out there for everyone.  In fact depending on which surveys you look at there are between 80 to over 100 million people with chronic pain management needs in the United States alone.  Of that number between 10 to 15 percent will also be experiencing prescription drug abuse or addiction problems.  This is where a team approach becomes even more crucial.

If you would like to read more on why teamwork is so important please read my article Collaboration NOT Competition that you can download for free on our Ariticles page.

If you want to learn more about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System please check out our website at www.addiction-free.com. To learn more about how to develop an effective chronic pain management plan please go to our Publications page and check out my book the Addiction-Free Pain Management® Recovery Guide: Managing Pain and Medication in Recovery. To look for my upcoming trainings please go to our Calendar page.

To read our latest Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please click here. To sign up for Chronic Pain Solutions, please click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.