Breaking Barriers #6: Pain management programmes

‘Self-man­age­ment’ doesn’t mean being aban­doned to ‘get on with it’ alone. Sup­port can come from health­care pro­fes­sion­als, fam­i­ly, friends, vol­un­tary organ­i­sa­tions or sup­port groups.

If pain is hav­ing a big impact, pain man­age­ment pro­grammes can help peo­ple to get their lives back on track. This involves focus­ing on what’s most impor­tant in life – this could be rela­tion­ships, activ­i­ties, work – and learn­ing how to be more involved in them with­out flar­ing-up the pain.

Top tip: con­trol the pain by find­ing your base­line. That’s a lev­el of activ­i­ty you know you can do with­out flar­ing-up the pain. From there you can build up slowly.

Find out more: lis­ten to par­tic­i­pants and health­care pro­fes­sion­als on the Glas­gow Pain Man­age­ment Pro­gramme shar­ing their expe­ri­ences on Air­ing Pain 32: Pain Man­age­ment Pro­grammes.

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