Dr. Gamwell

#FeatureFriday 🔔 We asked our alumna Dr. Gamwell, Director of Pediatric Pain Psychology and Rehabilitation at USC School of Medicine, how she views her role as an advocate 🫂 See what @KateG_PhD said below. “As a pediatric psychologist we are uniquely posed to be advocates for our patients. I have the honor and privilege of serving as the director of the only intensive interdisciplinary pediatric pain rehab (IIPT) program in the southeast, the RESET program. Pediatric chronic pain is not well understood by the lay community nor most of the medical community for that matter. It unfortunately results in patient’s going to a number of providers and/or without the proper evidence-based multi/interdisciplinary treatment needed to restore their functional abilities. These patients also receive the message that their pain isn’t real or is purely psychological, when neither are the case. As such, within our outpatient peds pain clinic and my inpatient IIPT I not only advocate for my patients with other disciplines by providing education and tools for them to better support the patient, but I also empower my patients and their caregivers with education and skills to be their own advocates. My goal is for my patients to be the leaders of their lives, not their pain. It is so rewarding when they are able to implement their skills and teach others how to best support them even as adolescents. My research emphasizes identifying risk and resilience factors and their relationship with psychosocial adjustment, self-management, and health-related outcomes in pediatric patients with chronic pain. Being able to identify these variables promotes targeted areas for intervention aimed at improving quality of life. Disseminating this information also helps to educate and hopefully empower others. Collectively, these aspects also embody advocacy.” #Advocacy #Pediatricpsychology #PediatricPain #psychologyadvice