Long term conditions are hard to live with. They can affect all aspects of life and it is easy to get stuck. This course offers an alternative perspective that we hope will help you to see things differently and find new ways forward.

Chronic Pain is difficult to live with. It is hard to understand, you can’t see it and it varies day to day sometimes for no apparent reason. Starting January 2022 and open Scotland wide we will have sessions throughout the year.

On Thursday the 2nd of September the whole team got dressed up to collect the award for Self Help Charity of the Year from Prestige Awards.

It was a very lovely surprise to find out that we won the award after being nominated and voted for by our service users.

Chronic Pain is difficult to live with. It is hard to understand, you can’t see it and it varies day to day sometimes for no apparent reason. In addition to pain, people often experience frustration, anxiety, stress, sleeplessness, low mood, isolation, communication and relationship problems.

A while ago we asked our service users to rename our important steps leaflet.

We now have a winner and the winning entry is “Small Steps to Great Rewards” which thought of by Terry who attends our Dumfries group meetings.

Chronic Pain is difficult to live with. It is hard to understand, you can’t see it and it varies day to day, sometimes for no apparent reason. In addition to pain, people often experience frustration, anxiety, stress, sleeplessness, low mood, isolation, communication and relationship problems. This brings many challenges.

A video that Phil Sizer our lead trainer made to show what it is like to attend one of our self-management courses.

There is an opportunity for people to join a patient advisory group, where you can be involved in a research project investigating the relationship between childhood experiences and pain.

The project is called Consortium Against Pain In Equality (CAPE): The impact of adverse childhood experiences on chronic pain and responses to treatment. There is evidence that children who experience adverse childhood events, such as abuse and neglect, are more likely to experience more health problems later in life, including chronic pain.

Pain Association Scotland are working in collaboration with Abertay University to look at new technologies to support people living with chronic pain.

In this film our Lead Trainer Phil Sizer talks about his book as part of the amazing Footsteps Festival.

This is an interesting watch in which Phil discusses the process of pain management and shares fresh ideas and insights. It’s especially good to hear him explain his popular ‘pain knot’.

Chronic Pain is difficult to live with. It is hard to understand, you can’t see it and it varies day to day, sometimes for no apparent reason. In addition to pain, people often experience frustration, anxiety, stress, sleeplessness, low mood, isolation, communication and relationship problems. This brings challenges for the person with the condition and the people who care for and about them.

Marlene talks about her journey with self-management and what she has learnt from it.

Maggie attends one of our monthly pain management groups after completing our 5 week  intensive course .  Listen to her story and hear the specific things she learnt that particularly  mattered and helped her. Listen too, to Maggie’s recommendations to other people also living with chronic pain,  the changes she has made and her hopes for the future.

We recently updated our old ten steps leaflet that we felt needed updating.

There are more than 10 ideas in this document and it is likely that you can think of some more that we have missed! But we felt that it would be a good idea to share it.

Lindsay Steven who attends our Dumfries monthly meetings talks about the change from our face to face meetings to online via Zoom. He also talks about the benefits of attending the meetings on Zoom.

My name is Andrew Watson, I am 54, married to Simone with two girls Chloe and Maisie aged 10 and 8 and two dogs.

In September 2008, two weeks before my wedding, I had a serious accident in which I broke my pelvis in four places and damaged my hip.

I spent 41 days at Sunderland Royal infirmary having my pelvis put back together and a lot of physiotherapy. The Doctors said that there was a 50/50% chance that I would be able to walk properly again.

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded the Scotland Prestige Award Self-help Charity of the Year award.

The judges were impressed with our personal touch and community feel and thought it was extra special to know we are making a positive difference.