The Executive Committee of SIP Portugal (SIP PT) organised a Webinar entitled “Pain and Employment”, which took place on March 16, 2023.
More than 190 participants were registered, including health professionals, health associations and the general public, which demonstrated the interest in this area, and it was considered a priority by the Health Committee of the European Parliament.
The webinar lasted for an hour and half. The moderator, Drª Marina Caldas, with extensive experience in the area of health journalism, streamlined the presentations and the debates of speakers. The speakers were: Prof Patrice Forget, Chairman of SIP Europe, Dr Filipe Antunes, President of the Association for the Study of Pain (APED), Dr Jorge Barroso Dias, President of the Portuguese Society of Occupational Medicine (SPMT), Dr Carla Barroso Dias, from the Human Resources Department of Conserveira A Poveira, Therapist João Leite, from the Gaia Professional Rehabilitation Center (CRPG) and Deputy Eduardo Oliveira, from the Parliamentary Health Commission.
The key message, transversal to all speakers, was that investment should be focused on active prevention, through teaching and training in ergonomics, postural measures, and rationalisation of effort, in order to prevent the worker from developing an occupational disease that causes chronic pain and dysfunction. However, if they arise during the work process, the focus should be redirected to their pain treatment and early rehabilitation, thus preventing pain and dysfunction from evolving into refractory forms and leading to unwanted sick leave. To achieve these objectives, alignment between the different entities involved will be fundamental, such as Patients and Health Professionals, Patient Associations and Scientific Societies, Human Resources, Occupational Medicine and Rehabilitation Centers, as well as Workers.
It is up to the entities involved to prevent pain and dysfunction. When this is no longer possible, they must ensure their treatment, in order to reintegrate the worker into the labor market as early as possible.
The need to sensitise policy makers is highlighted, so that, in accordance with European regulations, legislation articulating the Ministry of Health (Patient) and the Ministry of Labor (Worker), invests primarily in the prevention of pain and dysfunction in the work environment and which can guarantee workers their early rehabilitation and early reintegration into the labour market.
The recording video of the Webinar can be found here: https://youtu.be/c8N5w7HEQLw