Program helps children return to a normal life
June 2010
Until recently, 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.
Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital’s new Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Program offers a unique interdisciplinary approach to pain management that centers on helping children regain function in their lives, which means going to school, socializing with friends and enjoying normal family relationships.
The three-week program, comprising both inpatient and outpatient treatment, can help 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
The aim of the Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Program is to help youngsters cope with their pain, and achieve an acceptable quality of life. Before discharge, their 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 also are tracked.
To make a gift supporting the Pediatric Institute & Children’s Hospital or any area of Cleveland Clinic, visit our secure online giving site, or call Institutional Relations and Development at 216.444.1245 or toll-free at 800.223.2273, ext. 41245.
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