The oppor­tu­ni­ty

Low back pain is a com­mon, cost­ly, and com­plex con­di­tion. It is often not well sup­port­ed by tra­di­tion­al health­care mod­els and there is no one-size-fits-all solu­tion. Many indi­vid­u­als with low back pain rely on hos­pi­tals for treat­ment, but evi­dence shows that most peo­ple can be appro­pri­ate­ly man­aged in the com­mu­ni­ty if they have access to ser­vices which fol­low best-prac­tice clin­i­cal guidelines. 

The opti­mal sys­tem of care for low back pain intends to reimag­ine the way we deliv­er care for low back pain to improve out­comes for peo­ple liv­ing with this con­di­tion, and their fam­i­lies, car­ers, and employers.

This ini­tia­tive aligns with the nation­al Low Back Pain Clin­i­cal Care Standard.

Our approach

The Chron­ic Pain Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work (SCN) is lead­ing a project to pro­mote more appro­pri­ate and con­sis­tent care for peo­ple with low back pain, enhanc­ing com­mu­ni­ty sup­port and reliev­ing pres­sure on hospitals. 

We have devel­oped a flex­i­ble blue­print for a com­mu­ni­ty-based sys­tem aimed at opti­mis­ing low back pain care in South Australia.

A broad con­sul­ta­tion process was a key step in artic­u­lat­ing the opti­mal sys­tem need­ed to sup­port peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing this condition.

The Chron­ic Pain SCN is active­ly col­lab­o­rat­ing with stake­hold­ers to iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties for imple­ment­ing this mod­el, includ­ing in rur­al and region­al areas and via vir­tu­al care options.

Part­ners

• Chron­ic Pain Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work (SCN)

• Imple­men­ta­tion part­ner: SA Health Urgent Care Hub — Sefton Park and Woodville

Out­comes

The frame­work for the opti­mal sys­tem of care for low back pain in South Aus­tralia was finalised in May 2024 after exten­sive com­mu­ni­ty consultation. 

Our next steps involve work­ing with stake­hold­ers to tri­al the model’s fea­si­bil­i­ty, with a view to it being com­mis­sioned broad­ly across South Australia.

Doc­u­ments and resources 

• Frame­work describ­ing a pro­posed opti­mal sys­tem of care for low back pain in South Aus­tralia

• Out­comes of the com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tion: sum­ma­ry of what we heard

• Your­SAy con­sul­ta­tion page (note the con­sul­ta­tion is now con­clud­ed but you can still vis­it the page to read about the process and watch the explana­to­ry video).

Have a question? 

Please email CEIH.​ChronicPain@​sa.​gov.​au