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Unit of study_
OLET1512: Health Challenges: Pain and Society
2025 unit information
This Open Learning Environment will develop your understanding about pain and its impact on society. It is designed for a broad audience, but it will be particularly interesting for those studying health, law, psychology, business, ethics, economics, science or social science, as well as anyone who has personally experienced, or knows someone living with, persisting pain. Specifically, this OLE explores the 1) complex and individual-specific nature of pain, 2) impact of pain on society, 3) roles of culture, gender, and life-stages in the pain experience, and 4) ethical and legal considerations for its management. Why is chronic pain important? It is a major, but strangely, unrecognised health problem. Persisting or chronic pain affects around 1 in 5 people in Australia. A global research initiative on chronic diseases has identified Chronic Low Back Pain as the most disabling condition (on the planet) in years lived with disability (Lancet, 2012). It may not end your life but it can end your enjoyment of life. In terms of costs, there are major direct (e. g. health care, work) and indirect costs (e. g. quality of life) to individuals, families, and society generally. The predicament of those with chronic pain can be complicated by social factors, including medico-legal and insurance uncertainties, as well as by common treatments (e. g. opioids). Unfortunately, ignorance of chronic pain and its appropriate treatment is widespread across the community broadly, and the growing opioid epidemic is a clear example of the problem. This ignorance represents a major barrier to helping chronic pain sufferers.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Medicine and Health
| Study level | Undergraduate |
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| Academic unit | Discipline of Pain Medicine |
| Credit points | 2 |
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Prerequisites:
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None |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. Recognise the multiple factors contributing to individual-specific experience of pain
- LO2. Discuss the biopsychosocial model and its role in the treatment and management of pain
- LO3. Define the terminology used in describing different types of pain
- LO4. Explain how culture, language, gender, & life-stage factors can affect assessment & management of pain
- LO5. Discuss the ethical and legal issues concerning pain and its management
- LO6. Describe the impact of pain on society
Unit availability
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