Support We Offer

Our physiotherapists can help you to:

• Understand persistent pain and what involvement the nervous system has with our pain
• Come to terms with long term pain
• Understand how to manage your daily life and demands with persistent pain (pacing)
• Set valued goals to work towards the things in life that pain is currently having an impact on. E.g. hobbies, work
• Be active with persistent pain
• Sleep when you live with persistent pain
• Incorporate evidenced techniques like Relaxation and mindfulness to help manage pain.
• Manage setbacks (also known as flare ups) when you have persistent pain

Our specialist Pain Consultants can offer a wide range of advanced treatment techniques that include:

• Injections
• Medication reviews
• Denervation techniques

Our pharmacist has years of experience helping people with persistent pain to:

• Optimise medical management
• Understand the role of medication in your management

Psychologists working in pain services aim to:

• Support people to understand and manage the impact that living with persistent pain can have on their emotional wellbeing
• Help people to live meaningfully alongside their experience of pain
• Help you to think about how pain affects various different areas of your life, and the changes that you might like to make to this 

Some examples of this might include returning to previously enjoyed activities, improving the relationships and connections you have with the people around you, or spending time talking through and working towards accepting the journey you have been on in relation to your experience of pain.

The chronic pain nurse is an independent professional who is a part of multi-professional team. This role includes the following:

• Conducting Qutenza clinics for the treatment of chronic focal neuropathic pain
• Providing holistic follow-up sessions for all interventions such as injections, nerve blocks.
• Acting as patient’s case co-ordinator, communicating with the team, attending the multiprofessional treatment team meetings.
• Assisting with complex case interventions such as cervical facet joints denervation in outpatient clinics.
• Reviewing the patient’s progress, helping with evaluating and monitoring the treatment outcomes, educating the patients with medicines, self-management, group therapy programmes when appropriate.
• Supporting or leading service evaluation, audit and research projects within the pain management service

The Pain Management Program (PMP) is a 6 week education program, for 3 hours per week. There is NO role play within the group, you are free to share your experiences if you wish, but you don't have to.

You will be referred into the program following a discussion with someone in the service. The groups take place in various locations, at either Burton, Lichfield or Stonydelph. More information on clinic locations can be found on our My Appointment page.

The aim of the program is to promote self management strategies to reduce the impact of chronic pain and to improve your quality of life. It also offers you the opportunity to:

• Meet others with chronic pain
• Improve your understanding of chronic pain
• Help you manage the distress associated with pain
• Increase your confidence in being able to do things

To get the most out of PMP you need to be:

• Open minded
• Prepared to take ownership of your pain management
• Ready to identify and challenge unhelpful ways of managing your pain
• Ready to set realistic goals
• In a position to make changes

More information about the PMP can be found on our What is a Pain Management Programme (patient information leaflet)

The group is based on a Compassion Focused Therapy approach. The aim of the group is to explore an understanding of our emotional systems and how they are affected when living with a long term health condition. The group aims to support the building of skills and strategies to respond to health challenges from a more Compassionate stance, developing skills to bring balance to the emotional systems by increasing soothing, down regulating the body’s threat system and also overcoming barriers to manageable goals. The Compassion for Living with Persistent Pain Group is delivered in weekly sessions for 8 weeks. Each session will last up to 2 hours. The group is currently delivered in a virtual group setting.

More information about the Compassion for Living with Persistent Pain Group can be found in the Compassion for Living with Persistent Pain Group (patient information leaflet).

Tai Chi Chuan is a suitable form of exercise for many people with chronic pain. It is gentle, involving slow, smooth, flowing movements which can help to quieten the mind and bring physical benefits. Tai Chi offers a way of improving pain, physical ability, relaxation and your general sense of well-being.

Tai Chi classes run for 6 weeks on a weekly basis, and you are expected to attend all 6 sessions. Sessions last for 1 hour. During the class, there will be opportunities for frequent breaks. To get the most out of the class, you will need to practice for a short time each day at home.

Tai Chi does not require any special equipment, but please come dressed in comfortable loose clothing, and footwear that is appropriate for some gentle physical activity (flat and closed-in, without a flared heel is best). Please bring a drink of water with you.

You will be asked to complete a short questionnaire before you join the class, and again at the end. This will allow us to monitor your progress, as well as the effectiveness of the class.

You will also be asked to complete a short feedback form at the end of the course. This is anonymous, and will be used to improve our service to patients.