Know pain, know gain: pain science hits the road

One in five Australians live with persisting pain – a rate that’s only set to rise as our nation’s population ages. It’s Australia’s third most costly health condition, and is a significant contributor of suicides[1]. 

Now in its third year, the Pain Revolution Rural Outreach Tour, an initiative conceived by Professor Lorimer Moseley from the University of South Australia, is a public education campaign aimed at tackling the issue of chronic pain in rural areas. The latest tour, completed in March this year, was a gruelling 720km bike ride across Tasmania. On their route from Devonport to Hobart, 25 cyclists climbed the equivalent of 1.5 Mount Everest’s – so they certainly knew something about coping with pain by the end! Each day’s ride concluded with the team holding a free pain education seminar for the local community and its healthcare workers. 

The 2019 Pain Revolution raised almost $100,000, all of which will go to educating and supporting regional and rural based healthcare professionals in their management of patient pain. This aim of capacity-building is conducted primarily through the Local Pain Educator program, a community-based health promotion initiative that embeds pain experts (called Local Pain Educators) in Australia’s bush communities, where chronic pain tends to be most prevalent. If you'd like to donate to the Local Pain Educator network, please click here.