Assessment Services

The Multidisciplinary Pain Assessment is recommended for workers who are not making the progress that is expected despite having undertaken considerable treatment and support by their rehabilitation team. There is no limiting time frame factors that would preclude a referral as they can never be too soon nor too late in their rehabilitation.

The assessment is undertaken by the multidisciplinary team whenever there are significant barriers impeding the upgrading of activity tolerances and resumption of work duties. This is a three hour assessment undertaken by a Clinical Psychologist, Rehabilitation Counsellor and Physiotherapist or an Exercise Physiologist. We use health professionals who have post graduate training and experience in identifying the often complex barriers that injured workers with chronic pain frequently experience.

The assessment provides detailed information about current physical tolerances and level of de-conditioning and identifies problematic work duties in relation to pain triggers, RTW expectation, rehabilitation knowledge and worker beliefs and fears. There is also a detailed psychometric profile of mood, pain beliefs and insight into the workers understanding of their level of disability and the factors that contribute to this.

Routine liaison with rehabilitation providers, nominated treating doctors and the insurer will occur to ensure that vocational expectations have been clearly defined. The MPA is generally a pre-cursor to determining suitability of the Innervate Pain Program.

We generally recommend a full MPA assessment for all new clients. If they don’t require the Innervate Pain Program and only require the intervention of a few of the health professionals, then this will certainly be recommended in the Recommendations Section of the MPA report. We do not support over treatment and will only recommend a client for the Innervate Pain Program if we believe that this is the best and most cost effective outcome for them.