Supporting patients with Chronic Pain
Supporting patients with Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is a difficult condition to manage and the concept of ‘no cure’ can been difficult to accept. It is a condition which The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital’s Pain Management Team routinely support patient’s with from across the country.
Dr Liza Tharakan approached the hospital charity in 2021 for grant support to educate chronic pain patients at ROH by means of a short 4-minute video. Dr. Tharakan submitted a detailed funding application which members of the Charitable Funds Committee were delighted to support.
The term ‘chronic pain’ refers to pain that persists beyond the time normally expected for healing following injury or disease (often defined as more than six months). Chronic pain impacts on many areas of a person’s life and cannot always be resolved by medical or physical treatment alone.
The video which is available on the Trust’s website, provides educational support to patients via engaging visual materials, it is intended to help patients experiencing (or at risk of developing) chronic pain, including such conditions as fibromyalgia or chronic widespread pain.
“The video helps in many ways, one being helping patients come to terms with the condition and understanding how to self-manage its effects. Chronic pain affects individuals’ employment status, daily activities, relationships, mood, sleep and general health among others, implementing this small change can have a great impact on the mental wellbeing of patients.” Liza Tharakan
The video helps individuals understand their Chronic pain journey, become familiar with the medical team at ROH as well as aid in self-management tools to use at home.
Since the video launch, 344 patients have viewed and fed back on the content. We asked these patients to rate their knowledge of Chronic Pain before and after they watched the video.
58 individuals changed their response to understanding Chronic Pain from “quite well” to “very well” after watching the video (35% increase).
To view the video itself or find out more, visit: