Our People
About Us
Our People
Chronic Pain Australia consists of a number of volunteer staff who are governed by a Board.
Chronic Pain Australia Board
Mr Luke Arthurs
Luke is a senior executive in the Police Service. His wife lives with pain. He is deeply invested in supporting carers of people living with chronic pain. He has expertise in HR and media management.
Ms Madeleine Wales
Madeleine is our representative of youth on the board of Chronic Pain Australia. She volunteers with the NSW State Emergency Service and has experiences some chronic pain. Madeleine works in the media and maintains Chronic Pain Australia's web presence.
Ms Coralie Wales (President)
Coralie is the President of Chronic Pain Australia. She is immediate past CEO and founder of the Chronic Pain Group and a founding Director of Chronic Pain Australia. She lives with chronic pain and is undertaking a PhD program through Sydney University exploring health professional responses to clients living with chronic pain. Coralie speaks regularly at conferences and in the community about pain rehabilitation and the challenges facing statutory systems around Australia. She has worked as a consultant in providing advice to major employers in Australia, and has specialised in the rehabilitation of chronic non-cancer pain clients, assisting many to return to functional lifestyles over the last decade. She has presented a series of lectures on chronic pain rehabilitation in Sydney University’s Faculty of Health Sciences to final year and postgraduate rehabilitation counselling students. Coralie is a member of the Australian Pain Society and the Rehabilitation Counselling Association of Australasia.
Associate Professor Milton Cohen
Associate Professor Milton Cohen is a consultant physician in Rheumatology and Pain Medicine on the St Vincent’s Sydney Campus. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and immediate-past Dean of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. He has been very active in the development of pain medicine as a discipline and in the education and training of pain physicians. Dr Cohen’s main clinical and research interests are issues in pain theory and practice, rational pharmacotherapy for pain and implications of persistent pain for public policy.
Mr Dean Joscelyne
Dr Mandy Nielsen (Vice President)
Mandy lives with chronic pain, and has completed a PhD thesis exploring the social context experienced by people living with pain. With a social work background, Amanda is currently employed as a researcher in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Queensland. She has recently commenced a project focused on health literacy and chronic back pain.
Ms Dara Duric-Popovic
Dara has a degree in Psychology and has worked in both community/social welfare and occupational rehabilitation settings in NSW. She has over 10 years experience working in Occupational Rehabilitation in both the insurance and provider settings. She also holds a Certificate IV in Workplace Training and has over the years developed and conducted training courses in the rehabilitation and insurer setting. In addition to consultancy work, her experience includes Injury Management Advising for CTP insurers including a major CTP insurer, as well as a Workers Compensation Insurer, training, educating, assessments and counselling. Dara works with clients, living with pain, acute and/or chronic on a daily basis.
Having worked in the insurance industry, Dara has acquired a thorough understanding of the needs of CTP insurers and WorkCover agents (insurers) in the rehabilitation setting.
Dara’s professional experience and expertise brings a wealth of knowledge and she is committed to providing quality rehabilitation and achieving positive outcomes for her clients and people living in pain.
Dara is keen to become involved in making events happen for CPA as a consciousness raising exercise, and reducing the gap between rehab & CPA, but also to raise much needed funding for CPA’s operations.
Dr John Quintner
Rheumatologist, Perth, West Australia. MB BS (Sydney) 1963 MRCP (London) 1967 FFPMANZCA 1999. Dr Quintner is a Consultant Physician in Pain Medicine at the Fremantle Hospital (2007 – current) and prior to that was Clinical Lecturer in Rheumatology, Department of Orthopaedics, University of Western Australia (2001-2007). He was Locum Consultant Physician in Rheumatology, Royal Perth Hospital (2005 – 2007) - private practice (March 1975 – December 2002) and Consultant Physician in Rheumatology, Geraldton Regional Health Service (1993-2007). He was Honorary Medical Editor for Arthritis Today, (1999-February 2005).
He is an invited referee for the following journals:
- The Lancet
- Medical Journal of Australia
- Theoretical Medicine & Bioethics
- Paediatrics
- Acta Orthopaedica Scandinavia
- The Wellcome Trust
- Centre of National Rehabilitation & Disability (CONROD)
- Physiotherapy Research Foundation
- Clinical Journal of Pain
He has exhaustively published in peer reviewed international journals.
Helen Gracie
Helen Gracie started in business in 1994; operating the successful CLAREVILLE KIOSK from 1994 - 2003 and MOBY's Whale Beach restaurant from 1999 - present with her husband Joseph.
Following the successful treatment of her daughter in 2003 Helen Gracie co-founded SCENAR HEALTH with SCENAR therapy expert practitioner; Chris Mortensen. Passionate about universal access to non invasive health care options, Helen strives to ensure that all people have access to quality, effective and non invasive health care where appropriate
Since 2007 the SCENAR HEALTH training organisation has trained practitioners in professional SCENAR therapy in Australia, USA, Canada, Bahrain and New Zealand.
In 2008 SCENAR HEALTH Australia was selected by the Russian patent holder and manufacturer to partner in a global SCENAR training company; the Ritm SCENAR Institute. The Institute now produces the authorised English language manuals, training materials and certification for licensed practitioners globally.
In 2009 SCENAR HEALTH USA and Canada were created to service the rapidly developing North American market. As International CEO; Helen consults to Australia, USA, Canada SCENAR HEALTH companies.
In addition to this, Helen consults on specific commercial projects which require her specialist marketing and sales expertise and require her ability to get things done within a short time frame. Her specialty is new markets, from initial importation to help with business models and strategic planning.
In 2004 Helen co founded ABANA, a charity for helping children in Rwanda gain access to education and programs that enable the groups helped " to help themselves". After 5 years with ABANA, Helen resigned in order to be available for other projects that required her expertise. Recently Helen has participated in two medical missions to Haiti following the earthquake in January 2010, working with AMURT and JPHRO in Port Au Prince.
Peter Gregory
Peter has been living with pain since age 3 when he suffered neck and lower back injuries
in a motor vehicle accident. A second accident in 1985 caused further problems and Peter
has been out of work on a disability pension since 2002.
Before he left work Peter was in the food industry, mainly in quality assurance and control
and also worked as a meat inspector for the WA Government health dept and the Australian
Quarantine service.
Peter has spent a long time searching for answers regarding his chronic pain and in 2006
found relief when he was put in touch with the Fremantle Hospital Pain Clinic. Since then
he has been self-managing his chronic pain with moderate success, using the STEPS program as a refresher, which he attended this year. STEPS has helped Peter to manage some other health issues.
Stephen Thompson
Steve has lived with chronic pain for over 20 years, has run a support group for people in pain in the Macarthur area and since 1997 created and maintained a chronic pain website called Pain World. In December 2009 this was renamed Pain Support.org (www.painsupport.org). He has also been a long term advocate for chronic pain in his local community and is still involved as a SSWAHS (Sydney South West Area Health Service) Community Representative. He has sat on various SSWAHS committees, NSW Health Projects & Collaborations. He has always pushed for better recognition & treatment of chronic pain across all areas of his local health service and the rest of Australia.
Wanda Mitchell-Cook
Our National Advisory Panel
Stephanie Davies
Dr Stephanie Davies is the Head of Service, Pain Medicine Unit, Fremantle Hospital,
Perth WA. She also has a private practice based at Arthritis Foundation WA. She is a
Adjunct Assoc. Professor at the School of Physiotherapy at Curtin University and senior
lecturer at UWA.
Her interests are in combining self-management options with medical options. She
worked with the team at Fremantle to introduce the Self-Training Educative Pain
Sessions (STEPS), an 8 hour pre-clinic patient group educative program that aims
to increase the patient’s knowledge and skills of a broad range of pain management
strategies.
She has developed interactive web-based technologies to access evidence at the
point-of-care (www.MyLibrary.net.au) and to enable real-time analysis of patient
outcomes by health professionals & researchers (www.ResearchAustralia.net.au).
Renee Goossens
Renee trained as a teacher of people with special needs, practising for some ten years as well as studying and contributing further to medical research for patients with neurological disorders.
A wheelchair user suffering from chronic pain following a major traffic accident, she is actively involved in the community concerning Access, service for the frail aged, is an author and an arts practitioner. She is Patron of the extensive Civic Place project in Willoughby, NSW.
Her book on Pain Management has been published in Australia and in the UK. It recently took the international Bronze Prize for best book in the Living Now category awarded in the USA.
Pam Garton
Pam Garton is Managing Director of Abilita Services Pty Ltd. She is an Occupational Therapist whose focus has been the implementation of best practice in the prevention and management of persistent pain and disability within work rehabilitation.
Pam led research and development of the Abilita Program, now available to the injury management industry across Australia. This includes an online assessment, and individual and group coaching courses, integrated into work rehabilitation to assist people learn strategies for improved self-management of pain and disability.
Pam was awarded Honorary Membership of the Australian Rehabilitation Providers Association in 2009 for her contribution over 7 years.
Jenny Faulkner
Jenny has over 30 years experience in grass roots Community Development, Consumer education and advocacy with a background in counselling, health promotion and public relations. Her background in Community Welfare spans group and individual counselling and telephone support work. She has played a major role in the development of services for people living with complex chronic pain conditions, their families, care providers and the medical profession and has sought to raise the profile of several organisations through public speaking and networking locally, nationally and internationally.
Jenny Strong
Jenny Strong completed her Bachelors degree and Masters degree in Occupational
Therapy, and her PhD in Psychology at The University of Queensland. Jenny’s initial clinical
experiences were working with adult patients with burn injuries, arthritis, general medical
conditions and neurological conditions. It was while she was working in the RBWH Kenneth
Jamison Neurosurgical Unit that she was captivated by the huge burden which chronic
pain conditions placed upon individuals. As she worked with severely injured patients after
sustaining major trauma in motor vehicle accidents, she kept returning to the impact which
an invisible condition like chronic pain can have upon a person’s life. Hence, she moved her
research Masters topic from memory impairment after traumatic brain injury to treatment
efficacy for patients with chronic back pain. Her pain research efforts continue to this day.
After working clinically in Royal Hobart Hospital and Royal Brisbane Hospital, Jenny
commenced working at The University of Queensland in 1985.
Jenny has published over 130 papers. Her two books are on pain, with the most recent co-
edited textbook, Pain A Textbook for therapists, having sold over 5000 copies. Jenny is
on the Advisory Board for Chronic Pain Australia, and is a former Queensland Director of
the Australian Pain Society. Jenny held Executive positions for the Occupational Therapy
Association for many years, and for 9 years was the Deputy Chair of the Occupational
Therapists Board of Queensland.
David Buchanan
Lynette Guy
Michael Ward
David Butler
David Butler is a physiotherapy graduate of the University of Queensland (1978). He
also has a graduate diploma in advanced manipulative therapy (1985), a masters
degree by research from the University of South Australia (1996) and is currently
completing the Doctor of Education Programme at Flinders’ University where he
is studying the integration of biopsychosocial management into manual therapy.
David is a clinician, an international freelance educator and an adjunct lecturer at the
University of South Australia and Latrobe University in Melbourne . His professional
interests focus around the integration of neurobiology into clinical decision making
and public and professional education in pain management.
He is the author of the texts “Mobilisation of the Nervous System” (1991), ”The
Sensitive Nervous System” (2000) and a co-author of “Explain Pain” (2003).
Gerard McEwen
Gerard suffers from several forms of chronic pain, the most severe being neuropathy resulting from a disc injury to his neck. As a consequence he is on a disability pension.
He is a patient at the Pain Management Unit at Flinders Medical Centre and an active member of the Health Consumers' Alliance of S.A. He has served as a consumer representative on several bodies including the Generational Health Review (working party on systems) conducted in SA. He has also assisted a number of chronic pain sufferers with their WorkCover claims and engaged with fellow diabetics on the subject of diabetes related neuropathic pain. He is on the South Australian Ministerial Advisory Board on Ageing - pain management is an important issue in aged care. He is also experienced in dealing with the media and still have some contacts nationally and locally.
Barbara True
Barbara True MD(USA), FRACP, is an adult rheumatologist in Adelaide SA with a special interest in chronic pain and fatigue. She uses narrative practice as a vehicle of delivery for evidence-based medicine and she is an advocate of non-violent communication.
Fiona Hodson
Chris Hayes
Matthew Craig
Matthew Craig is director of bounceREHAB, a multidisciplinary rehabilitation practice at the forefront of non-pharmacological pain management. Matthew has a foundation in clinical physiotherapy and strength and conditioning specialisation across many patient populations (sports, musculoskeletal, neurological, orthopaedic and occupational) which has provided him with a clinical focus on pain and its impact on human behaviours such as return to work, fear avoidance and its impact on quality of life. Matthew is currently involved in research projects at the faculty of Health Science, University of Sydney. His current research involvement is on treatment effectiveness of supervised and unsupervised exercise using specific outcome measures following various foot and ankle surgical procedures. His primary treatment focus uses a cognitive behavioural approach, positively reinforcing patients with compensable injuries; empowering them with the knowledge and skills for better long-term self-management of their pain and perceived injury. His aim is to reduce the impact of pain on day-to-day behaviour and improve confidence with general function, quality of life with a specific aim for a safe and appropriate return to work.
Senani Wijesena
Dr Senani Wijesena is an Integrative Medicine practitioner specialising in Nutritional Medicine. She has worked as a general practitioner since 1996 and has extensive experience with diagnosing and managing chronic diseases such as autoimmune disease, chronic inflammatory conditions, allergy, hormonal imbalance, metabolic syndrome and cancer. She integrates traditional western medicine with natural treatments and uses diet, nutritional supplements and herbs in the management and correction of body dysfunction.
Dr Senani Wijesena is currently undertaking a post graduate masters degree in nutritional medicine and also has had training in psychiatry. She graduated from Newcastle university in 1992 and now runs a private practice in Cammeray in Sydney, NSW. For further information about her approach please visit www.naturalmedicinecliniccammeray.com
Special Consultants
Lee Furlong
Lee is the co-founder of Chronic Pain Australia and continues to support us in an advisory role.
David Newman
David dedicated his valuable time for 18 months in a management role in Chronic Pain Australia's early days. He supports the organisation in an advisory role.
Sponsors
Rotary Club Of Thornleigh
We wish to express our sincere gratitude to our friends at the Rotary Club of Thornleigh who generously supported our first year of life with seed funding.
In June 2008 Pfizer Australia provided an educational grant to allow us to develop a consumer Pain Management program that will complement the Arthritis NSW program “Moving On” which will be launched in 2009. This module will focus specifically on helping people cope better with chronic pain.
We recognise in particular Janssen-Cilag and Pfizer who have helped us develop Australia’s first comprehensive web-based prevalence study of chronic pain (www.thepainproject.org):
We also thank Destria for building and hosting our website. The kind support of Medtronic has also been much appreciated.
