AIA Australia today announced its partnership with Pain Revolution, a community based educational program aiming to help people who suffer from chronic – or persistent – pain. The initiative is driven by Professor Lorimer Moseley, a pain scientist at the University of South Australia with over 25 years’ experience treating persistent pain.
Each year five million Australians are affected by chronic pain[1]. For western societies, it costs about as much as diabetes and cancer combined[2]. Stephanie Phillips, Chief Group Insurance Officer of AIA Australia, said: “Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that reduces quality of life and renders many sufferers incapable of working for long periods of time.”
“At AIA Australia, we want to help our members be well and get well, and to champion Australia and New Zealand to be the healthiest and most protected nations in the world. That’s why we are proud to support Professor Lorimer Moseley and Pain Revolution: we want to help educate, raise awareness and give people the resources to recover from, and also prevent persistent pain.”
The Pain Revolution Ride is an annual regional bike ride. Funds are raised to train local health professionals – or ‘Pain Educators’ – in communities along the Sydney to Albury trail in 2018. This network of trained professionals will then work directly in the community and support other doctors, physiotherapists and health professionals in education and treatment of persistent pain.
Research shows that pain is about protection: The brain ‘creates’ the pain in response to trauma, as a way of alerting the body and protecting it from further injury. However in chronic pain sufferers, the pain continues long after the tissue has healed; the brain has ‘learnt’ the pain and become overly protective.
Phillips added: “A significant number of our customers who lodged a claim with us are suffering from chronic pain. Embedded in our claims philosophy is a focus on ability, rather than disability. Research shows work improves overall wellbeing, we recommend supporting programs that seek to return people to productive work at the time their doctor indicates is appropriate. AIA Australia works with highly skilled allied health professionals who are able to help our customers to support them on their journey back to wellness and work.
“At AIA Australia, we are always looking for how we can more effectively help claimants get back to health and wellness. We see supporting Pain Revolution as a real shared value opportunity – tackling chronic pain and finding a new, effective path to recovery not only has potential benefits for our own claimants, but for society and the millions of Australians suffering this condition.”
The inaugural Pain Revolution ride in 2017 reached over 350 healthcare professionals, 900 patients and 50 community leaders along the regional Melbourne to Adelaide route. Learn more about Pain Revolution here http://www.painrevolution.org/.
[1] Pain Australia, Painful Facts, 2017
[2] The American Academy of Pain Medicine, Facts & Figures, 2017
Contact:
Ingrid Nienaber
AIA Australia
T: +613 9009 4143
E: Ingrid.Nienaber@aia.com
About AIA Australia
AIA Australia Limited is an independent life insurance specialist with over 45 years of experience building real and sustainable partnerships. AIA Australia offers a range of products that protect and enhance the lives of more than 3.3 million Australians and is widely recognised as a market leader in product innovation and development.
AIA Australia is the country’s largest group life insurer by market share and works closely with major financial institutions and corporate partners to provide life insurance solutions for their customers. In addition, AIA Australia is the fastest growing provider of retail life insurance products sold through financial advisers. AIA Australia also works with a network of affinity partners that distribute life insurance products. By having a partnership philosophy at the core of its business, AIA Australia is focused on building genuine relationships and delivering real value to its business partners.
In 2014, AIA Australia introduced ‘Vitality’ – the world’s leading scientifically-backed health and wellness program, to the Australian market. AIA Vitality aims to be the catalyst for real change to the positive health outcomes of Australians.
In 2017, AIA Australia launched myOwn, a new brand created to bring together health and life insurance with the AIA Vitality wellbeing program to help its members live longer, healthier, happier lives. myOwn is a joint initiative of AIA Australia, not for profit health fund GMHBA and South African financial services provider Discovery.
