Response to the Australian Clinical Guidelines for Managing Whiplash-Associated Disorders

The APS welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the SIRA consultation on the Australian Clinical Guidelines for Health Professionals Managing People with Whiplash-Associated Disorders. In this submission we commend SIRA for the robust, collaborative and methodologically sound process of developing the Guidelines. We believe that the psychologically specific recommendations within the Guidelines are positive and consider the recommended care pathways to be feasible to implement. However, future reviews of the Guidelines may benefit from considering the effectiveness of psychological therapies for broader chronic pain and trauma related conditions. We believe that in order to enable practical application of the Guidelines, there needs to be access to appropriate services and psychologists who are able to deliver suitable assessments and interventions to meet individual requirements. These points are discussed further within the submission.

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