Pain Resources Hub
Understanding Pain, Empowering Lives
Chronic pain can affect every aspect of life.
Our resources are here for people living with pain, their loved ones, and health professionals seeking reliable, accessible information to improve understanding and management of pain.
Pain Awareness Month
Each September, Pain Concern joins organisations across the world to mark Global Pain Awareness Month.
Chronic pain affects around 1 in 4 people in the UK. It is often invisible, misunderstood, and under-supported.
At Pain Concern, we believe that knowledge, support, and self-management can make a meaningful difference to the lives of people living with persistent pain. Explore the sections below to learn more, find free tools and resources, and share them with your community.
What is Chronic Pain and Why Does It Matter?
Chronic pain is pain that lasts for three months or more, sometimes long after an injury has healed. For many people, there may be no clear physical cause. Chronic pain can impact every part of life – from work and relationships to sleep and mental health.
But it’s not just about the pain itself. The way society understands, treats, and talks about pain makes a big difference. During Week 1 of Global Pain Awareness Month, we share:
Learn about misconceptions surrounding chronic pain
Hear from people with lived experience
For individuals, families and health services
Get involved: Follow us on social media and share our myth-busting posts
Tools and Support for Self-Management
One if the most important steps in learning to manage your pain us developing your understanding of it.
Paul Cameron – Pain Matters 89
If you get a condition like diabetes, you are given education, it should be the same with pain.
Heather Wallace – Airing Pain 150
Self-Management Navigator Tool
A tool to help you prepare for healthcare appointments by identifying key concerns and questions’
Airing Pain Podcast
Episodes covering self-care, patient experiences and the latest in pain research.
Pain Matters Magazine
Features articles by health professionals and people with lived experience
Digital & Printed Leaflets
Comprehensive guides on topics like:
Managing pain with long-term conditions – Pain Medication and side-effects.
Mindfulness Courses
Free online courses and drop-ins designed to help people manage pain and stress using mindfulness techniques.
Pain Education Sessions
2-hour sessions offering evidence-based information and support.
HealthUnlocked Community
A moderated peer-support forum with thousands of members.
Self-management does not mean you are on your own.
➡️ Featured Episode: Airing Pain 150 – Learn to Live Well with Pain
Discover how understanding pain can change lives. In this episode, you’ll hear from people who’ve taken our Pain Education sessions and now support others through them.
🏥 Join a Free Pain Education Session This September
Inspired by Airing Pain Episode 150? You can experience a Pain Education session yourself — open to anyone living with persistent pain.
➡️ Featured Issue: Pain Matters 89 – 30th Anniversary Edition
Want to better understand your pain? Ease stress and anxiety? Build up activity? Enjoy life more?
In this very special, extended edition of Pain Matters, we celebrate our 30th birthday by looking at what we’ve learned over the past three decades.
We’ve gathered and updated our most important publications to form a comprehensive, evidence-based manual for navigating your pain.
Pain Matters 89
“For the first time in my pain journey, I stopped mourning the loss of my old life and began looking forward to my new one… I am now in charge of my pain, not the other way round”
– Lindsay McLean, Park Pain Story
“You can learn ways to manage and ‘turn down the volume’ of the pain in order to live with it on a daily basis, whilst still having a meaningful life full of purpose and enjoyment, doing the things you love.”
– Mairi McWilliams, Pain Education Champion for Pain Concern
“Reducing anxiety, doing things you enjoy and finding people who understand all help your brain to reset itself.”
– Amanda C de C Williams, Professor of Clinical Health Psychology at UCL
Real People, Real Lives
Don’t just take our word for it. Let the people who have transformed their lives using some of these tools and resources tell you in their own words:
Mairi McWilliams – Airing Pain 150
My mum used to be very, very desperate to fix my pain and I say to her now ‘the best thing that I ever did, mum, the best thing you can do to help yourself is accept the fact that I have pain and I am 29 and I might live to 99 and still have pain and I’m ok with that because I’m managing it’ … the best thing that happened with me is not that my pain has got worse or better; I still have the same pain, but I manage it a lot better through education and adding more tools to my toolbox so that I’m in control of the pain instead of the pain being in control of me.
Lindsay McLean – Pain Matters 89
Meeting others with chronic pain and learning the ways tangible pain education could be applied to my life changed everything for me, irrevocably. […] For the first tie in my pain journey, I stopped mourning the loss of my old life and began looking forward to my new one … I am now in charge of my pain, not the other way round.
Heather Wallace – Airing Pain 150
When we talked about what people with chronic pain needed, we all wondered why it had taken so long before someone explained to us how you can turn the volume of pain up, but you can also turn the volume of pain down. And if you can learn to turn the volume of pain down, you can bring back joy, enjoyable activities, and an ability to participate in life and do the things you want to do but you thought you couldn’t do because of chronic pain.
Heather Wallace – Airing Pain 150
If you get a condition like diabetes, you are given education, it should be the same with pain.
