New Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Program Offers Interdisciplinary Approach to Pain Management
Until now, children and teens with chronic pain had few choices. A familiar pattern of test upon test and unsuccessful treatments emerged, while patients withdrew from school, friends and life. Families, trying to find solutions, lost work days, and in the process, family relationships were changed by the persistent pain and the fruitless attempts at pediatric pain management. For some children, the cause of the pain is known, but cannot be eliminated. For others, the cause of the pain has escaped detection. The published, scientific term for this pattern is Pain Associated Disability Syndrome (PADS). Today, Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital offers hope to children and families coping with PADS.
Research demonstrates that treatment of Pain Associated Disability Syndrome centers not on "curing" the pain, but on rehabilitating the person. For generations, Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital Shaker Campus has built a reputation for excellence in rehabilitation services for children in Ohio. Rehabilitation is often needed after accidents, recovering from operations, or born with major disabilities. We have an interdisciplinary team of experts specializing in pediatric pain management. It is not only important to escape dependence on potent pain drugs, emergency department visits and fruitless operations. For children, function means going to school, socializing with friends, and enjoying normal family relationships.
Inpatient and Day Treatment
The two-part, three-week Pain Rehabilitation program consists of inpatient and day hospital components. Before the three week program begins, Cleveland Clinic pediatric specialists examine the patient for his or her particular source of pain.
The first two weeks: Inpatient
During the first two weeks, children and adolescents are admitted to the Children's Hospital for Rehabilitation on our Shaker Campus to be treated on an inpatient basis. Pediatric physicians evaluate and treat the child along with experts in physiatry, psychology, occupational and physical therapy and recreation therapy. Also involved are professionals in social services, dietitians and nurses. Evidence-based treatment methods are selected according to patient and help provide pediatric pain management.
Because these pediatric patients are hospitalized, families affected by the patients' daily pain can "disengage" from the child's behavior patterns. These sometimes "lock in" reactions that are not constructive. A Cleveland city school teacher re-establishes school attendance, at the hospital, on the second day of the child's stay.
The third week: Outpatient
During the third week, patients are treated on an outpatient basis. They come to the day hospital and continue the work of the first two weeks, but return to their families each evening.
Specialty areas can include:
Before discharge, the degree of pain and ability to cope with persistent pain are assessed. They are assessed again after one, six and 12 months. Medication use, school attendance and treatment in an Emergency Department are tracked. Also used in evaluation are nationally-published measures for "quality of life."
The Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation program is a consideration for children and adolescents whose pain causes them to:
- miss school, revert to home-schooling or drop out
- lose social contacts and friends
- develop clinical syndromes that are difficult to diagnose and treat
Or whose parents and caregivers:
- lose work days to deal with the child's illness
- face family stress in addressing the child's chronic conditions
- have visited multiple medical professionals without successful treatment
- have incurred significant treatment expenses
Patients and parents who have finished the rehabilitation services for children in Ohio remark on its multidisciplinary method. Doctors and allied health specialists notice that the rehabilitation strategy makes this program unique. This program isn't merely for those that "all else failed." This program can help youngsters cope with their pain, and achieve an acceptable quality of life.
Call 216.448.6035 if you'd like to learn more about the pediatric pain management, or to refer a patient.
