National Lottery funding to help local people with chronic pain to recover their wellbeing and zest for life

Social Inclusion charity, Developing Health and Independence (DHI) has been granted £20,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund to increase support for people in South Gloucestershire living with chronic pain.

34% of adults suffer from chronic pain, which can lead to significant disability and psychological distress, reducing their ability to carry out and enjoy everyday life including self-care, going to work, family relationships and social activities. DHI helps people facing multiple disadvantage, who have high risk factors for chronic pain including socio-economic deprivation, unemployment, alcohol and nicotine use, disability, mental illness, trauma, comorbid long-term health conditions - and in most cases a combination of these.

Thanks to players of The National Lottery Community Fund, DHI are now able to expand their Pain and Wellbeing service, which provides a person-centred approach to pain management, where clients can receive accessible information and support to take control of their health and wellbeing as well as support with dependence on pain medication.

The new grant will fund one-to-one sessions with clients in South Gloucestershire, and interactive digital resources which will be accessible to clients from further afield. The project will help clients to understand their experience of pain and implement changes to help them manage their symptoms and improve their lives. Clients will also have the option to participate in peer support where they can share knowledge, support solutions, while developing social connections which may have been limited as a result of chronic pain.

Jo Bond signed up to the pilot because she was struggling to control her use of pregabalin, which she was prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and back pain. Jo’s case worker helped her to look at her pain differently and identify alternative solutions to manage it. Jo started practicing mindfulness and joined DHI’s weekly pain management peer support group where she gained confidence from talking about her pain journey and learned about new coping strategies. Jo is now pregabalin free after gradually reducing her dose (with support from her GP).

Jo says, “I’m really grateful for the support I’ve had through DHI’s pain management service. The mindfulness exercises have helped massively with my overall wellbeing, the discussions I have at the pain management group have been a total game changer and I can help others in the group, as I’ve been there and can understand what they are going through.”

Dave Cook, DHI’s Project & Programme Manager, says “We are extremely grateful for this funding, which is desperately needed to support more people with chronic pain. This debilitating and isolating condition causes severe distress and significantly impacts people’s everyday activities, social participation and ability to work.

We are very proud of the work we do to help our clients – over 80% report improvements in their symptoms, health and wellbeing, but we receive many more referrals than we can take on. This new grant means that we will be able to directly support more local people whose lives are derailed by chronic pain and/or pain medication dependency, and implement an online platform to widen the reach of the positive benefits our programme can offer.”