Sunday 23 March 2025
The TOPP Day - The Occasional Pain Practitioner Day
Pain for the Generalist Practitioner
Pain is the most common reason that people attend healthcare, however the assessment and management of pain is poorly taught in clinical programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
One in five adults in New Zealand – about 770,000 people, live with ongoing pain. With specialist pain services across the country woefully under-resourced, increasingly this burden is unintentionally falling onto primary care.
Whilst we are continuing to fight for recognition and investment into joined up community- specialist services across the spectrum of acute-chronic pain, within the health service reforms, we know that progress is slow.
Join us for a practical and clinically focussed one day workshop, which aims to equip you with a toolkit to provide good care for your patients living with pain, despite the current resourcing. We will cover commonly encountered pharmaceuticals and non-pharmacological management strategies & learn how to engage with someone who has chronic pain to promote evidence-based management.
This event is suitable for any healthcare professional who works with people with pain as part of their broader practice, but outside of specialist pain centres - GPs, practice nurses, HIPs, SMOs, RMOs, community & hospital nurses and physios, OTs, psychologists etc.
One in five adults in New Zealand – about 770,000 people, live with ongoing pain. With specialist pain services across the country woefully under-resourced, increasingly this burden is unintentionally falling onto primary care.
Whilst we are continuing to fight for recognition and investment into joined up community- specialist services across the spectrum of acute-chronic pain, within the health service reforms, we know that progress is slow.
Join us for a practical and clinically focussed one day workshop, which aims to equip you with a toolkit to provide good care for your patients living with pain, despite the current resourcing. We will cover commonly encountered pharmaceuticals and non-pharmacological management strategies & learn how to engage with someone who has chronic pain to promote evidence-based management.
This event is suitable for any healthcare professional who works with people with pain as part of their broader practice, but outside of specialist pain centres - GPs, practice nurses, HIPs, SMOs, RMOs, community & hospital nurses and physios, OTs, psychologists etc.
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The “TOPP Day, held as part of the New Zealand Pain Society 2025 ASM” activity has been endorsed by The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) and has been approved for up to
14 CME credits for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) purposes. Credits are for active Fellows of the College only. |
8.00am-8.30am Registration, Exhibition Open & Arrival Tea & Coffee
8.30am-8.45am Welcome
Chronic Pain – Mamae Tonu Chair: Linda Roeters
8.45am-9.30am Chronic Pain: An Introduction
Dr Louise Lynch, Pain Management Specialist, Health NZ Te Whatu Ora - Capital Coast & Hutt Valley, Wellington, NZ
9.30am-9.50am Making Sense of Pain - How to Explain Persistent Pain
Dagmar Hempel, Physiotherapist, Pain Management Service, Health NZ Te Whatu Ora - Capital Coast & Hutt Valley, Wellington, NZ
9.50am-10.30am
The Modern Understanding of Osteoarthritis and What It Means for GPs
Associate Professor Tasha Stanton, Clinical Pain Neuroscience UniSA Allied Health & Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Chronic Pain – Mamae Tonu Chair: Linda Roeters
8.45am-9.30am Chronic Pain: An Introduction
Dr Louise Lynch, Pain Management Specialist, Health NZ Te Whatu Ora - Capital Coast & Hutt Valley, Wellington, NZ
9.30am-9.50am Making Sense of Pain - How to Explain Persistent Pain
Dagmar Hempel, Physiotherapist, Pain Management Service, Health NZ Te Whatu Ora - Capital Coast & Hutt Valley, Wellington, NZ
9.50am-10.30am
The Modern Understanding of Osteoarthritis and What It Means for GPs
Associate Professor Tasha Stanton, Clinical Pain Neuroscience UniSA Allied Health & Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
10.30am-11.00am Morning Tea & Industry Exhibition
Chair: Louise Lynch
11.00am-11.40am The Interplay of Pain and Stress - Distress
Dr Christopher Turnbull, Psychiatrist, Health NZ - Capital & Coast, Wellington, NZ
11.40am-12.00pm Responding to Demands for Specific Medications - What are Doctors' Legal Rights and Obligations?
Adam Holloway, Partner, Wotton Kearney, Wellington, NZ
12.00pm-12.20pm ACC Community Pain Services
Launa Steel, Clinical Advisor & Health Partner, ACC, NZ
12.20pm-1.20pm Lunch & Industry Exhibition
Prescribing and Tapering for Chronic Pain Chair: Sue Anderson
1.20pm-2.05pm Drugs and Chronic Pain - Why They Don't Work, And What We Should Do
Dr Buzz Burrell, Senior Medical Officer, The Auckland Regional Pain Service, NZ
2.05pm-2.30pm When Opioid Use Becomes a Substance Use Disorder and How to Approach?
Sam McBride, Clinical Lead Addiction Services, Health NZ, Te Whatu Ora, Capital & Coast, Wellington, NZ
2.30pm-2.55pm Learning from Lived Experience with Pain
Rongomaiwahine Higgins-Herewini, Kaihāpai Matua, Senior Administrator, Te Puni Kōkiri
2.55pm-3.20pm Tapering Tool
Dr Hemakumar Devan, Lecturer & Pain Management Physiotherapist, University of Otago & Health NZ Te Whatu Ora - Capital Coast & Hutt Valley, NZ
3.20pm-3.50pm Afternoon Tea & Industry Exhibition
Practical Strategies Chair: Linda Roeters
3.50pm-4.30pm A Tour of Available Resources for Self-Management: A Practical Approach
Sue Anderson, Nurse Practitioner, Acute Pain Management Service, Health NZ Te Whatu Ora - Capital Coast & Hutt Valley, NZ
Linda Roeters, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Acute Pain Management Service, Health NZ Te Whatu Ora - Capital Coast & Hutt Valley, NZ
4.30pm-4.45pm Closing Remarks
