Skip to main content
Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing
Woman conducting a Postgraduate Psychology experiment

Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing Public Lecture 1: Skills for all: Primary care and community-based chronic pain self-management

Register Here

6 October 2021 - 6 October 2021

12:00PM - 1:00PM

Online - Zoom Participants wishing to ask questions can do so via sli.do (web browser and app) using #wripain. The best rated questions will be put to the speaker in the Q and A.

  • Free

Share page:

Chronic pain is a huge health challenge. It is the biggest reason people in the UK see their GP. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recognised it as a priority disease in 2019. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has also recently accepted that current chronic pain medications have limited long-term benefit, and in fact carry serious safety concerns. That is why reducing opioid prescriptions (for non-cancer pain) to zero by 2024 is a priority for Public Health England.

This is the image alt text

black and white image of man in pain

Chronic Pain is a bio-psycho-social phenomenon that cuts across social, primary care, public health and rehabilitation. Health care professionals realise the need to change how they engage with people with persistent pain, but lack knowledge and confidence in their skills. We contend that chronic and persistent pain cannot be ‘fixed’ or ‘cured’. It needs an understanding of the individual experience and person-centred management, to help people live better lives with it. The reasons for this include (a) doesn’t address the underlying untreatable problem and b) it changes the brain such that addiction and behavioural negative factors outweigh the benefits of switching the brain off to pain signals through these drugs. There are better ways and we have evidenced them. The sustainability of health systems must be re-evaluated. There is potential for families and the community to offer support, and improve the experiences of individual pain-livers. Pursuing a different way of action about health and care in pain management is urgently required. Drs Paul Chazot and Frances Cole will discuss this new person-centre-approach to pain self-management.

The Pain Academy & livewellwithpain Footsteps team, Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, Durham University

Speaker Bios

Dr Paul Chazot is the Director of the Durham WRIHW Pain Academy. He is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Fellow of British Pharmacological Society. He is the Durham lead on the Gabapentinoids and opioids Tapering Toolbox (GOTT), and co-inventor of the new pipeline brain-sparring drug for managing chronic neuropathic pain, votucalis.

 

Dr Frances Cole is a GP and pain rehabilitation specialist working. She trained in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) at Newcastle Cognitive Therapy Centre in 1993-4. In 1996, she started the first UK multidisciplinary primary care pain rehabilitation service in Bradford based on CBT principles. She was a finalist in the 2011 NHS National Clinical Leaders Network leadership awards.  She is a co-author of a CBT self help guide “Overcoming Chronic Pain”, chosen as a UK Reading Well Agency Book on prescription for GP’s in 2017. A second edition published in February 2020 and joined “ Living Well with Pain” self help book published in 2018. She is past chair of the British Pain Society Pain Management Programme (PMP) Special Interest Group and was awarded an honorary membership of the British Pain Society in 2019.

 

Pricing

Free