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Pain management programmes are an evidence based approach designed to help individuals effectively manage pain. They have the goal of improving your quality of life, in spite of the pain symptoms you may be experiencing. It uses medical, physical, and psychological strategies to support you to develop self-management strategies, so that you are able to take more control of how your pain is managed.
PMP is suitable for individuals experiencing long-term pain. It includes helping you to understand more about pain and learning many different strategies for managing pain including pacing, exercise and relaxation. You will be equipped with understanding and a variety of strategies that you can use to manage your pain.
We encourage everyone to participate in the exercises at their own level. They can be performed standing or seated and you are in control of the number of repetitions you do. The exercises are used with each of our pain groups and we do a few different types of exercise through the program.
The program takes place over a 6 week course of weekly 2 hour sessions. Class size can be up to 25 people. We have a large room with plenty of space.
Each class we will talk about physical and psychological strategies for understanding and managing pain. We use goal setting to encourage you to monitor progress in improving your life whilst living with pain. In each session we will do some exercise and a relaxation exercise.
The aim of the program is to give you a toolbox of strategies for managing your pain. You will find some of the strategies we discuss suit you better than others. You will build a portfolio of strategies that help you manage pain day to day and strategies for managing when pain flares.
You will be given a book about pain management, it is helpful if you bring the book with you each time.
You will be given directions to take away about each type of exercise. You will be advised how you can progress the exercises at home as appropriate.
You can start by thinking about something that you really want to do, for example, going to the park with your grandchildren or working in the garden for 30 minutes daily. You can then put together an action plan, explaining:
Action plan
- What you want to achieve (your goal, for example, working in the garden daily)
- When you will achieve it (e.g. 3 months)
- How you will achieve it (e.g. completing ESCAPE-pain and continue to exercise twice a week after that)
- Where you will achieve it (e.g. exercising at home and at the local gym)
We will help you in setting some short-term goals as stepping stones to achieve your main goal. We encourage goal setting in three areas - movement, relaxation and fun.
The majority of patients on the pain management program have fibromyalgia and past experience shows that patients with fibromyalgia do very well on the program. The group will have a broad range of pain conditions.
Many patients have several health issues alongside their pain and successfully complete the pain management program and benefit from the lifestyle changes encouraged in the program.
The effectiveness of pain management programs can vary depending on the individual and their ability to engage in the program. However, research has shown that multidisciplinary pain management approaches can significantly reduce pain levels, improve physical functioning, enhance emotional well-being and increase overall quality of life for many individuals with chronic pain.
You can contact Circle and ask for your queries to be passed on to the Pain Team.