FEATURE PAIN MANAGEMENT
You have to have the rain to see the rainbow
Occupational therapist and pain specialist Karen Walker looks at some of the facts around persistent pain , and describes taking part in a community outreach peloton tour , organised by a public health campaign that aims to flip the way people think , talk about and treat persistent pain
In September this year , I took part in a community outreach peloton tour , organised by Flippin ’ Pain TM , a public health campaign that aims to flip the way people think about , talk about and treat persistent pain . This is achieved by raising awareness of the problem of persistent pain , spreading the word about modern scientific understanding of pain , and giving people the knowledge , skills and hope for a better way forward .
The Flippin ’ Pain TM formula is to educate , engage and empower through six key messages : persistent pain is common and can affect anyone ; hurt does not always mean harm ; everything matters when it comes to pain ; medicines and surgeries are often not the answer ; understanding your pain can be key ; and recovery is possible .
The campaign took place in Lincolnshire , which is one of the highest areas in England for GP opioid prescribing for persistent pain ( The Pharmaceutical Journal 2019 ).
The tour started on Sunday 12 September and finished on Friday 17 September . The team , of varying abilities and fitness levels , included healthcare professionals , pain scientists , GPs , researchers and people living with persistent pain , wearing branded cycling gear and raising money for charity .
The peloton cycled over 250 miles between destinations throughout Lincolnshire , where over 20 interactive events were held during the days and evenings , raising over £ 5,000 for Pain Concern .
Chronic or persistent pain often serves no useful purpose . Medical assessment and diagnosis do not usually lead to the pain going away , and over time , it may affect what we can do and our daily activities ( British Pain Society , undated ).
Pain can be secondary to ( caused by ) an underlying condition , for example , osteoarthritis , rheumatoid arthritis , ulcerative colitis and endometriosis . Persistent pain can also be primary , with no clear underlying condition , or the pain appears to be out of proportion to any observable injury or disease ( NICE 2021 ).
It affects between 30 and 50 per cent of adults in the UK , yet the design and delivery of healthcare does not fully embrace the complicated biological , psychological and social nature of pain .
Persistent pain is reliably associated with healthcare appointments and with significant physical and emotional impacts , including anxiety , depression and disability ( Turk , Ohrbachand Patel 2016 ). Often public understanding of the science and management of persistent pain fails to reflect best scientific understanding .
Throughout the tour we were accompanied by the Brain Bus , providing a host of scientific experiments and interactions that showed how the mind can play tricks on our body sometimes , which can lead to physical sensations because of the messages getting confused and the brain not understand the signals properly . This is one reason persistent pain can be very difficult to treat , because we cannot just ‘ re-boot ’ the system .
Here in Lincolnshire , I work in the pain management service as a registered occupational
28 OTnews November 2021