Our featured service this month is the MindSpot Pain Course, an online treatment program for people experiencing chronic pain.

MindSpot is a free, national service for Australian adults with stress, worry, anxiety, low mood, chronic pain, or depression and provides mental health screening assessment and treatment courses. It is funded by the Australian Government and run out of Macquarie University by registered health professionals including psychologists, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists.

The screening assessment is a quick 20 to 30 minute confidential online questionnaire which provides individuals with personalised recommendations about which mental health support services and resources may be able to assist.

The treatment courses are used to equip individuals with treatment strategies, tools, and techniques to address specific mental health symptoms.

The MindSpot Pain Course is an accredited program with the National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health Standards, consisting of five lessons over an eight-week period. It provides the information and practical skills individuals would normally receive from a mental health professional at a specialist pain management clinic.

The lessons provide essential information and teach practical self-management skills to help participants:

• Understand chronic pain and how it differs from acute pain.
• Recognise the cycle of symptoms involved in pain, anxiety and depression.
• Break the cycle of symptoms.
• Recognise and challenge unhelpful thoughts and beliefs.
• Recognise and manage physical symptoms of pain, anxiety and depression.
• Manage levels of day-to-day physical activity safely and confidently, despite pain.
• Continue to manage your pain and emotional wellbeing once the course has finished.

Participants can choose to receive weekly therapist support during the course, or they can choose a MindSpot therapist when they need to.

The course also includes DIY guide to help users better understand and practice skills taught in the lessons. There are also lots of additional resources teaching other important and practical skills, as well as stories from other people with chronic pain who have previously participated in the course.

The MindSpot Pain Course is recommended for people who:

• Are 18 year of age or older.
• Are Australian residents.
• Experience symptoms of chronic pain and symptoms of anxiety, low mood and depression, who want to improve the management of pain and emotional wellbeing.
• Have at least 4 hours a week to spend working on the course and practicing the skills.

There are many benefits to using the MindSpot Pain Course including:

• Improved quality of life
• Improved relationships with loved ones
• Reduced stress, anxiety, and mental fatigue
• Improved productivity
• Provide effective coping skills, strategies, tools, and techniques
• Reduced risk of other medical issues long-term

MindSpot also provides resources for health professionals on how to refer patients to MindSpot, as well as screening tests for patients displaying general anxiety and depression symptoms.

There is no cost to use MindSpot resources, screening assessments, or treatment courses.

The MindSpot Pain Course is available online at https://www.mindspot.org.au/treatment/our-courses/pain-course/.

Users must first complete the online assessment to determine whether a clinically-proven MindSpot treatment course is the right choice. Participants will then answer a few questions about their physical and emotional symptoms before receiving their results. Before enrolling users can choose to speak to a MindSpot therapist to discuss their results or self-enrol in treatment.

All of MindSpot’s programs have undergone clinical trials at the eCentreClinic to ensure their efficacy. They have conducted more than 90 clinical trials involving 9,000 people and the clinical outcomes of these trials can be found in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. These outcomes include:

• 50% reduction in symptoms (for at least two years).
• 40% disability reduction by MindSpot treatments.
• 95% of users would recommend MindSpot.

Learn more about MindSpots clinical outcomes here. For more information regarding the research trials visit eCentre Clinic: Our Research.

The MindSpot Pain Course was trialled at the eCentreClinic in clinical trials with more than 1,500 Australians. It was found that most participants made good clinical improvements in how much they were bae to do day-to-day and their emotional wellbeing. Many participants were also able to work through the course with very little contact with therapists and still make significant improvements. Over 90% of participants reported that the course was worth their time and would recommend it to other people.