Empowering the Pedorthist by Enhancing their Role in the Opioid Crisis
promotion of health, wellness, and prevention.
Living with chronic pain can be devastating,
and effective pain management is important
to getting your life back. Pedorthists can
embrace multiple roles to play in changing
the trajectory of the opioid crisis in the
communities they serve by raising awareness
of the risk of opioid addiction, helping to
identify opioid-dependent individuals so that
they may get treatment, and collaborating
closely with community efforts.
First, the pedorthist can raise awareness of
the risk of opioid addiction among providers,
patients, and families. The pedorthist can offer
education to all patients and their families
about the risks of prescription opioids by
having material on hand such as the Centers
for Disease Control’s printable PDF patient
posters. These are intended for providers to
print and give to patients. Several examples
are: “Prescription Opioids: What you Need
to Know”, “Pregnancy and Opioids”, and
“Infographic: CDC Guideline for Prescribing
Opioids for Chronic Pain” at: https://www.cdc.
gov/drugoverdose/patients/materials.html. 3
Secondly, many adult prescription drug
addicts show no overt signs of addiction.
Identify and educate those patients at greatest
risk for addiction by listening to patients
for possible clues of addiction. This may
empower pedorthists to assist prescribing
providers with valuable information to prevent
opioid overdoses. The pedorthist can detect,
observe or recognize during discussion some
warning signs of prescription opioid addiction
as in the following: deceitful or secretive
behavior, drowsiness, lack of energy, sudden
"Pedortists should
learn and understand
non-prescription
methods of pain
management such as
repositioning, ice,
heat, massage and
guided imagery."
mood changes, loss of interest in favorite
activities, irregular schedule, closed off from
family and friends, sleeping excessively or at
unusual times, cash, valuables and medication
missing from the home and loss of interest in
appearance.
Recognizing these symptoms will allow the
pedorthist to participate as a member of the
multidiscipline team in approaching patients
being treated by opioids.
Pedortists should learn and understand non-
prescription methods of pain management
such as repositioning, ice, heat, massage
and guided imagery. Further, studies have
validated that early access to physical therapy
can prevent acute pain from becoming chronic
pain. Moreover, the treatment of pain, whether
acute or chronic, often requires an integrated,
multidisciplinary approach due to the many
variables that may contribute to a patient's
perception of pain and response to treatment.
To enrich the pedorthist’s body of knowledge it
Current Pedorthics | July/August 2019
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