Living with and managing persistent pain, every day, can be exhausting. Unfortunately, there is not a medication that will remove all pain. The term ‘painkiller’ is misleading – it implies that the medicine will kill the pain completely. Although they can play a part in managing pain, they do not work for everyone and even if you get some benefit, after three months they are probably not working and side effects become a serious issue.
Retrain Pain provides bite-sized lessons on pain, including understanding pain and pain medication. The lessons aim to teach a science-based approach to overcome chronic pain.
Live Well with Pain is a website for people who are living with persistent pain and those who support them. Live Well with Pain’s resources offer tried, tested and effective ways to develop your confidence to self-manage your pain. Everything on this website is completely free to use, whether you are a person living with persistent pain, a carer or a healthcare professional supporting people to develop their self-management skills.
ESCAPE-pain is a group rehabilitation programme for people with chronic joint pain that integrates educational self-management and coping strategies with an exercise regimen individualised for each participant. It helps people understand their condition, teaches them simple things they can help themselves with, and takes them through a progressive exercise programme so they learn how to cope with pain better. ESCAPE-pain offers two programmes:
- ESCAPE-pain for knees and hips: Designed to benefit people with chronic knee/hip pain
- ESCAPE-pain for backs: Designed to benefit people with chronic low back pain
Opioids Aware is a website by the Faculty of Pain Medicine that provides information about opioids and the associated risks.
Flippin’ Pain, inspired by the Australian pain revolution movement, is a website that was developed by pain researchers and physiotherapists and aims to help people better understand persistent pain. Flippin’ Pain is a public health campaign with a clear goal: To change the way we think about pain. Flippin’ your understanding of pain could change the lives of you and your loved ones forever.
The Pain Toolkit is for people who live with persistent pain and healthcare teams who support them. This website contains links and resources compiled and put together by the team at The Pain Toolkit for your reference and what they believe will help you in the self-management of your pain.
Change Grow Live – drug treatment options is a website with some common treatment options for people with drug problems, along with information on how to make changes yourself and links to peer support groups and meetings.