Does Pain Management work?

Yes, it does….

My story is very typical of that of a pain patient. I was, like many pain patients looking for that magic bullet to take away the pain. Managing my pain was like playing a game of snakes and ladders – a game of luck.  Most days melted into the next and I have a very poor pain self manager. I did not exercise or generally look after my body, I ate all the wrong foods and when something went wrong with it, I expected the doctor and other health care professionals to fix me.

My Turning Point!

In July 1996 I attended the INPUT Pain Management Programme (PMP) London.  It was described to me as a programme that could help me to increase my confidence and mobility and provide me with the pain toolkit of skills to self-manage my pain.  I thought this was finally something that could help me turn the corner and help me live with my pain.  I have been back in full time work since 2000 and to date I have never had a day off sick, so another testament that pain management works.

What do I do now?

In early 2004 I began to develop a patient booklet called the [1]Pain Toolkit and in 2005 Dr Frances Cole become a co-author of it. The Pain Toolkit is very simple patient booklet which was supported by the Department of Health and now used extensively in the UK and adapted for, Europe, [2]Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Since 2007 350,000 copies have been printed and now in circulation throughout the UK. They have also been translated into German, French, Italian Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, Indonesian and Gujarati. It was also adapted for teenagers and young people called My Pain Toolkit.  It’s also been adapted for Canada.

The Pain Toolkits booklet has now been developed into [3]Pain Toolkit learning workshops for health care professionals to increase their skills and also how to support their patients to self-manage in a timed-based appointment.

Pain Champion 2014

In December 2013 I was nominated and awarded the title of [4]Pain Champion 2014 by [5]Pain UK, the [6]British Pain Society and the [7]Chronic Pain Policy Coalition.

The award recognised the work I have been doing for the last 15 years to support people with persistent pain here in the UK, EU and around the world.

During 2014, I want to raise the profile of community pain management, and how they can:

• Restore people confidence to self-manage their pain
• Reduce A&E – GP visits
• Reduce Medication usage

Memberships

• British Pain Society
• [8]The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)

Peter Moore

M. 07811 222 044
E. pete.moore@paintoolkit.org
W. www.paintoolkit.org/mobile
Twitter @paintoolkit2