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The Pain Management Programme is a group based course.  It runs for three weeks with sessions 3 days a week (Tuesday to Thursday – 9.30 – 4.30) in person and 1 days a week (Friday 9.30 -3pm) virtually (telephone and online appointments) with breaks planned throughout the day. On each programme there are approximately eight people (18 years plus), men and women, all of whom have chronic pain. The course consists of different sessions including –

  • Developing a gentle exercise programme
  • Education sessions on –
    • understanding chronic pain
    • managing medication
    • managing sleep problems
    • improving communication with others about chronic pain
    • increasing activity levels and setting goals
    • practical strategies for everyday living
  • Developing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) / Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Compassion Focussed Therapy (CFT), mindfulness and relaxation skills to help manage the emotional impact of pain.

 

The course is run by a specialist team including psychologists, physiotherapists and nurse.

 

You can attend the programme by either travelling to the Centre each day or by staying in residential accommodation.

 

After the three week course, people are invited back for follow up meetings at one month and four months.  These meetings are opportunities for people to review their progress with managing their pain and to discuss any difficulties.

 

A Pain Management Programme is a well recognised type of help for people with chronic pain. There are about 70 Pain Management Programmes running in the UK. Programmes have also been developed in Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

 

Attending a Pain Management Programme is not about finding cure for the pain or focussing on pain relief.  The content of Pain Management Programmes have been developed from research showing what helps people with coping- in the best way possible with chronic pain.  Research has also shown that attending a Pain Management Programme can help people to make significant improvements to how they cope with chronic pain.  Our own data shows that people are highly satisfied with our programme and find that it helps them to make important changes in their day to day lives.