Integrative & Integrated Health Care for Managing Pain in Veterans
Chronic pain is a challenging problem for patients, as well as providers, due to factors that often coincide with it, such as difficulty sleeping, obesity and PTSD.
Clinicians who are well-versed in integrative approaches to healthcare have found multi-modal, and, often nonpharmacological, alternative strategies that help reduce chronic pain and the other issues that go along with it.
Karen Seal, MD, MPH, talked with the Pain Management Collaboratory about integrated and integrative approaches to patient care, and what it means to take an integrative approach to pain management.
In the following video series and Q&A, Dr. Seal explains the VA’s Whole Health model, its components, and its benefits. Dr. Seal also shares what the model does for patient care and pain management, as well as discusses using mind-body approaches to meet the unique, multi-dimensional needs of veterans with chronic pain.
Whole Health & Integrative Medicine: An Interview with Karen Seal, MD, MPH
Our PMC editor sat down with Dr. Seal to talk about alternative approaches to pain management, integrative medicine, the VA's Whole Health model for patient care, and working with the veteran population.
Read the InterviewKaren Seal, MD, MPH, is co-principal investigator, along with William Becker, MD, of one of the Pain Management Collaboratory’s 11 pragmatic trials studying nonpharmacological strategies and strategies to manage pain and improve daily functioning and quality of life in veterans.
Dr. Seal is a Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco and the Chief of Integrative Health at the San Francisco VA Health Care System. She also directs the Integrated Pain Team clinic and Integrated Care Clinic for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
