Frequently Asked Questions
About Our Pain Programs
Do you take patients who have ‘failed’ other pain treatment?
Absolutely. Because our programs are significantly different from other pain management models, just because a patient has been through treatment with another pain management provider and has “failed” by no means suggests that he or she has exhausted all approaches or that we can’t increase his or her function.
Is it ever too late to refer?
No.
When is an appropriate time for intervention concerning pain complaints?
Referral is appropriate in the face of decreasing function or continuing dysfunction due to pain, despite ongoing medical care that has been occurring for more than approximately 6 months. An added indicator would be psychological symptoms or emotional factors that interfere with recovery.
How long are your programs?
While full time, daily Chronic Pain treatment is individualized, we conform to the Colorado Division of Workers’ Compensation Medical Treatment Guidelines for Chronic Pain Disorders, which suggest 3 – 4 weeks as the optimum time required for active treatment followed by 6-9 weeks of follow up. Part time Chronic Pain treatment usually lasts 6 weeks, with variable frequency of follow up care as indicated.
Discuss more of the daily schedule for patients in the full time program and exactly what they do.
Chronic Pain patients may participate in aquatic therapy, exercise, endurance building, simulated work, hobby activities, physician visits, relaxation training, biofeedback, counseling, group pain and pharmacology education, family education, and in making concrete plans for how to maintain functional gains after discharge. They also are involved in group sessions around issues of coping skills, acceptance, behavior modification, mindfulness and meditation, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. CRPS patients will coordinate these activities with diagnostic procedures as necessary and with the addition of desensitization treatments provided to the affected body part.
How is return-to-work addressed in your program?
Work has a significant therapeutic impact on patients’ outcomes and on their overall quality of life, and so we are very active in helping patients return to the workplace, if this is appropriate to the patient’s situation, either in the occupation they were in when injured or in another occupation.
What do you do when a patient has gone through your programs but still has pain?
Pain symptoms will probably still be present to some degree for our patients after going through our programs. In addition to helping patients in making medication adjustments and whatever lifestyle adjustments they can to help moderate the pain, our goal is to help change patients’ response to pain so that they can function in the real world in the face of pain.
About Vocational Rehabilitation Consultation
What is Vocational Rehabilitation Consultation?
Vocational rehabilitation consultation involves assessing if and how an injured party can return to work after an injury when his or her ability to perform the job held at the time of injury is in doubt. This is done through interview with the injured party, vocational testing, labor market analysis, and vocational counseling.
In what setting is Vocational Rehabilitation used mostly?
Vocational rehabilitation can be used in any setting where a person has been injured and the question of his or her ability to return to work after their recovery has been raised. However, most often for Centennial Rehabilitation vocational rehabilitation consultation comes into play with on-the-job injuries covered under Workers’ Compensation insurance or in Long Term disability situations. In those situations the vocational rehabilitation counselor may also be answering the question of what impact the injury has had on an injured person’s life-long vocational options, from an occupational and wage perspective. Much of what a vocational counselor does is used in legal or benefit settings to help an insurance carrier and the injured worker settle a civil or workers’ compensation case.
Does Vocational Rehabilitation equate with re-training?
Not necessarily. A vocational counselor and an injured worker may collaborate on a training plan for a new occupation that would be more suitable to an injured worker’s physical abilities after an injury than what he or she did on the job before the injury. However, first a counselor will focus on what skills a person has that are transferrable to a new occupation.
If you have any additional questions we haven’t addressed, please feel free to call us at 303.368.4500 or email us at EMAIL for more information.