UNE psychologist wins Churchill Fellowship

July 18, 2007

Helping people in pain return to normal lives is psychologist Debra Dunstan's professional mission. Her research focuses on ways to help people overcome the debilitating psychological effects of chronic pain. Now she is to continue that research overseas, thanks to a prestigious Churchill Fellowship.

The fellowship, worth about $25,000, is intended to "enable Australian citizens from all walks of life to travel overseas to undertake an analysis, study or investigation of a project or an issue that cannot be readily undertaken in Australia". Named in honour of Sir Winston Churchill, the scholarship was established in 1965, the year Sir Winston died.

Dr Dunstan will take advantage of her fellowship to visit Canada, Sweden and the UK, where she intends to look at best-practise models of community-based pain treatment.

"What I am looking at is delivering a community-based program to help people overcome chronic pain preventing them from doing everyday activities," Dr Dunstan said.

The program will build on research she has conducted with participants from northwest NSW.

"It's a multi-disciplinary program, so there's a psychologist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, and a doctor.

"I'm going to Canada because the Canadians have developed a training program to teach psychologists to lead these types of multi-disciplinary teams. Like Australia, Canada has lots of remote areas without access to specialist pain clinics. They have pioneered a community-based program that delivers pain treatment to people who would otherwise have to travel to a major city to receive it."

Dr Dunstan will then travel to the UK to look at a similar program that has an additional job market re-entry component. Finally she will travel to Sweden, because "Sweden are the front-runners for early intervention programs to help people suffering from chronic pain".

"My passion is that I want to see a model of service delivery that allows treatment to be delivered to rural Australians in their own communities and that increases access for those who cannot travel easily to metropolitan pain clinics."

Dr Dunstan said that specialist pain clinics in cities such as Sydney normally offered a three to four week intensive program to help people overcome their pain, but that a community-based program was far from a second-rate alternative.

"What I have found is that by using a program in which we draw on a range of different experts, we're able to achieve similar results with a less intensive program of three hours a week for six weeks. It's by no means a replacement, but for people who have pain as the result of an injury, this community-based treatment seems to produce effective outcomes."

Dr Dunstan departs on her three-country trip in November.

For more information about this story, contact Debra Dunstan on (02) 6773 3764 or Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3771. A photo is available to accompany this story.

Posted by Leon Braun at July 18, 2007 05:36 PM