Pain Management in Rehabilitation

Pain is the single most common symptom among people receiving rehabilitation, even for people who don’t suffer chronic pain.

But until now, most attention was focused on how to manage pain in acute care settings where people are in the early stages of recovery from injury, surgery and illness.  Toronto Rehab is leading the way in improving pain management in rehabilitation.   

Good pain management is important for the rehabilitation process. It not only reduces discomfort, it increases function, lets people participate more fully in their rehabilitation and speeds their recovery.  

At Toronto Rehab, we’ve developed new evidence-based interprofessional pain management guidelines for the rehabilitation setting. The guidelines are interprofessional. That means that improved pain management is incorporated into all aspects of care. Every professional involved in care is involved in assessing, monitoring and managing pain.

Our comprehensive approach includes:

• comprehensive pain assessments

• pharmacological (drug) management and management of medication side effects

• non-pharmacological approaches such as such as stress reduction, relaxation techniques, TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation), acupuncture, etc.

• patient education, including how to monitor your own pain, manage pain at home and manage medication side effects

The new guidelines will help to establish best practices and standardize pain management across the rehabilitation sector.