The first step in developing a Chronic Pain Management Program at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital is offering a free Education session, open to the hospital and community, with the plan to continue to develop and grow into a multi-disciplinary program. The Chronic Pain Presentation is aimed at educating the public on the basic principles of the Neuroscience of Pain, the difference between Acute and Chronic Pain, and the different conservative options that are available to help. With the Chronic Pain Program, we want the patient's to take an active roll in their recovery. All people are encouraged to come, patients and providers, in order to educate themselves and others, and to empower people to regain control of their lives and improve their function. Rachel and Jake truly believe that in order to begin to manage the Opioid crisis that we are in, the focus needs to be on prevention. Therefore, starting at the root of the problem the class aims at educating people what Pain is on a Neuroscience level in order to have appropriate expectations about their pain and how to properly manage it in a conservative way. The Chronic Pain Presentation is offered for free on the First Thursday of every month, from 6-7pm in the McGown room at FMH.

Presenters:
Jake Kretschmar: Jake was born in North Dakota and attended the University of Mary completing his Bachelor of Exercise Science, Associates of Business Management, and Doctorate of Physical Therapy. Jake began work as a Traveling Physical Therapist working all over the country in North Dakota, Minnesota, Tennessee, Maine, Texas, Utah, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska in many different settings including Outpatient Orthopedics, Inpatient Rehab, Skilled Nursing, and Home Health before eventually taking a permanent job at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital 6 years later. Throughout Jake's travels, he noticed that the treatment of Chronic Pain was falling short of the patient's desired outcomes. Many of the clinicians he observed were only treating a small portion of what could be causing the patient's pain and dysfunction, often times using only passive modalities. Motivated to make a difference, Jake began studying the Neuroscience of Pain and started to use a biopsychosocial approach which was aimed at addressing all aspects that could contribute to a patient's chronic pain suffering. With the knowledge Jake had received form studying the Neuroscience of Pain, he was able to begin seeing long term positive results in the patient's he was treating. This success motivated Jake to work with Rachel Campbell to develop the Chronic Pain Management Program at FMH to educate the public on what Chronic Pain is, how Chronic Pain can be conservatively managed, and to empower the patient to take an active roll in their recovery from Chronic Pain.

Rachel Campbell: Rachel was born in Canada and completed her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, and then went on to complete her Masters of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto, Canada. Rachel worked for 2 years in an Orthopedic Sports Clinic before deciding to move to USA to become a Travelling PT, in order to incorporate her love of travelling with her passion of Physical Therapy. She worked throughout Texas and California for 2 years before moving to Alaska for a short-term contract at FMH, but realized how much she loved the community of Fairbanks and therefore took a permanent position and has been here for 4 years! Within the first year of working in Fairbanks, Rachel began to see first-hand the large population of Chronic Pain within our community and felt helpless as a practitioner as everything she tried did not seem to help. Therefore, she began taking courses in the Neuroscience of Pain to improve her skills and knowledge about the current research and best practice guidelines to better equip herself to help patients in Chronic pain. Her passion for helping People in Chronic pain combined with the increasing number of people seeking non-conservative methods (prescribed and non-prescribed Opioid abuse) to treat their pain, helped fuel an idea to start a Chronic Pain Management Program at FMH.