Pain Self-managment
The 12 Pain Toolkit tools are a set of practical strategies designed to help people manage their persistent pain more effectively. These tools include simple skills for pacing and planning activities, relaxation to get back on track and in the driving seat.
Accept that you have persistent pain and then begin to move on. Acceptance is the first and the most important tool in your pain self management toolkit.
Get involved, start building a support team. Being successful in pain self management means getting both help and support from others.
Learn to prioritise and plan out your days. Prioritising and planning your days is an essential tool.
Setting goals and action plans. For example, Tuesday PM - you could write an activity plan for the following day.
Be patient with yourself. Take things steadily. It may take you a few weeks or months to see changes or improvements.
Learn relaxation skills. Relaxation skills are very important for tense muscles in the body and for unwinding the mind.
Keeping fit and healthy. Many people with pain fear exercise in case it causes more problems. However this is not true.
It is always handy to note what hasn't or didn’t work so you can learn from those experiences. We sometimes learn more from our errors and not from our successes.
Do you have a setback plan? Is it unrealistic to not have a setback plan? The simple answer is NO! Developing a setback plan is good pain self management.
Team Work and action planning. Team work between you and your healthcare professional is vital. Imagine the Arsenal football team playing without a team plan.
Daily Practice & resilience. Keeping it up and putting in to daily practise the tools from 1-11.
