Exploring communication in families affected by parental chronic pain: An occupational perspective

Family communication about pain is an important therapeutic target when a parent lives with chronic pain. Occupational therapy literature about communication in families affected by parental chronic pain is currently lacking.

To bring an occupational perspective to communication within families affected by parental chronic pain, to generate insights for practice.

Five families (total n = 19 family members) were recruited into this collective case study. The gathered data included interviews, observations, and personal documents/artefacts. A cross-case analysis of similarities and differences between families was conducted to distil insights about the relationship between occupation and communication about parental pain.

Each family develops its own style of communicating about a parent's pain. On a day-to-day basis, pain-related communication is prompted by experienced, observed and/or anticipated occupational disruption brought about by parental pain.

Occupational disruption and occupational responses need to be components of interest, when designing assessments and interventions targeted at communication in families affected by parental chronic pain.

The findings from this study point to the importance of communication through occupation in families affected by parental chronic pain and suggest novel targets for occupational therapy intervention.