Children with chronic pain continue to face challenges and stigma in the classroom

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Whether it's missing school or life experiences that other children take for granted, children living with chronic pain face many challenges. And with stigma surrounding their experiences, experts worry their main hurdle is just being believed.

Transcript

00:00Brianna loves spending time with her pets, but she's had to spend more time at home with

00:07them than she'd have liked.

00:10Earlier this year, she made the difficult decision to defer year 12 and the completion

00:15of her studies.

00:16It was quite depressing at first when they all moved out of the school, but I didn't.

00:25Missing out has been a feature of Brianna's life ever since she was diagnosed with cystic

00:29fibrosis shortly after birth.

00:32Sometimes my disability puts me in hospital for a certain amount of time where I physically

00:36cannot attend.

00:37Historically, Brianna has spent at least two months a year in hospital because of her chronic

00:44illness.

00:45She has probably had between 10 and 40% attendance throughout her life.

00:50Technology and help from a robot has helped Brianna stay in school as much as possible.

00:56But even when she's there, there's still stigma to contend with.

00:59They can be there at school, but the effort of being at school is taking all their concentration

01:05and energy, and they don't have anything left to actually listen to the lessons.

01:09Brianna contributes to a worrying statistic.

01:12Chronic Pain Australia estimates one in five children live with chronic pain, and those

01:17who do miss out on an average of 22% of their schooling and struggle to be taken seriously

01:22by teachers and peers.

01:24A lot of people in society think that chronic pain is just in a certain demographic.

01:28The long-term effects of chronic pain in childhood are quite staggering.

01:33Treating chronic pain is also a challenge.

01:36Chronic Pain Australia says there are only six paediatric pain clinics across the country,

01:40and it wants the federal government to fund more.

01:43But the health minister isn't making any commitments, and says the government is already funding

01:47a range of chronic pain initiatives for all ages.

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