Dr Benedetta Crivellari, who helps lead the Southpaws Pain Clinic alongside Dr Sébastien Bauquier, recently attended the Australian Small Animal Veterinarians (ASAV) Annual Conference, where she led a workshop exploring a more comprehensive and compassionate approach to pain management.
The workshop highlighted the major shift away from the traditional biomedical model of pain — which focuses primarily on identifying and treating physical causes — to a biopsychosocial approach. This framework recognises that pain is shaped not just by tissue damage or disease, but also by psychological wellbeing, behaviour, past experiences, and the patient’s social and environmental circumstances. This shift is especially relevant when managing persistent or complex pain.
While medication is still an essential tool, the workshop emphasised that effective pain management is rarely just pharmacological. An individually tailored plan also includes physical rehabilitation, movement and exercise, environmental changes, behavioural support, nutrition, sleep, caregiver education and strategies to reduce fear and stress.
Using interactive discussion and practical learning, Dr Benedetta challenged attendees to rethink how pain is assessed, communicated and treated, highlighting the value of collaboration between veterinary professionals, allied practitioners and caregivers. By looking beyond a single symptom or medication, clinicians can better understand how pain affects the whole patient and develop multimodal plans that support comfort, function and quality of life.
We were delighted to see Dr Benedetta championing this important conversation at ASAV and sharing the same whole-patient approach that underpins the work of our Pain Clinic at Southpaws. Good pain care goes beyond simply prescribing – it is about seeing and supporting the whole patient.
