By Professor Helen Slater
For a young person living with both chronic pain and a mental health condition, the impact is not simply two separate problems. Together, they can create a cumulative load affecting education, relationships, family life, participation and overall wellbeing.
Yet pain and mental health care are often delivered separately. This can leave young people and their families moving between disconnected services without receiving care that responds to the whole person.
A new commentary published in The Journal of Pain and led by OPEN Director Professor Helen Slater challenges this fragmented approach. It brings together an international, cross-disciplinary group of pain and health-systems experts—including a young lived experience partner—to identify practical targets for change.
Its central message is the need for connected needs, connected care and connected systems. This means listening to young people, understanding their broader health and wellbeing, equipping the workforce to respond confidently and ensuring services work together to provide person-centred and equitable care.
This reflects an idea at the heart of OPEN: knowledge alone is not enough. Improving care also requires practical skills, collaboration and systems that enable clinicians to respond to the person in front of them.
Read When one plus one doesn’t equal two: a commentary on strengthening the care of young people experiencing comorbid chronic pain and mental health conditions
Professor Helen Slater is a Clinical Researcher and Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist at Curtin University (School of Allied Health)
