As a Veteran (someone who has ever been in the military). do you have:
- muscle and joint pains or stiffness.
- feel worried, anxious or stressed.
- sleep poorly or have distressing dreams.
- avoid people or doing things.
Thank you for your interest in this complementary and alternative medicine study
Your participation in this study will tell us more about:
- What treatments might help.
- How helpful these treatments might be.
Treatment is either:
- Battlefield Acupuncture, along with a ‘talking therapy,’ focussed action and commitment therapy (FACT) or
- Rongoa Māori, traditional healing.
If you decide to take part, you will be randomly allocated to treatment (acupuncture and ACT or Rongoa Māori) or ‘usual care,’ in other words how you as a Veteran usually look after yourself and your health, (you do not need to do anything special).
Treatment will take 12 weeks or less, with each session lasting about an hour. The ‘talking therapy’ lasts about 20 minutes, and will focus on trying to get you doing things that you have been avoiding.
You can see what FACT is about just below.
You can also download the VA ‘Act Coach’ for IoS, Android and Google Play here VA Act Coach
Rongoa Māori is individually tailored, but will usually include massage.
You will have with questionnaires at the start (pain, distress, disability, sleep quality, post traumatic stress, and psychological flexibility), at 12 and 24 weeks distress pain and disability and finally, at 36 weeks, all the questionnaires again.
You can see the questionnaires below.
Everyone will receive koha of $100, and if you are in the ‘treatment’ group;
If you have had an injury in the past twelve months this may be covered by ACC.
If you have a condition accepted by Veterans Affairs they may cover it or:
We will fund treatment, with all reasonable travel costs etc being covered. We have funding to treat 40+ Veterans and need just 74, to register your interest please email:
david.mcbride@otago.ac.nz
and we will send you a link to sign up!
The full participant information sheet (PIS) with the link to the survey is just below, (please keep a copy for the contact information).
Participant Information Sheet and link to survey
The study is now ready to roll out in Christchurch and Auckland, and will be extended to other areas asap. You can also read about the theory here Acupuncture methods
