What is a Pain Toolkit?
Peter Moore came up with the concept in 2002 while writing a self-management article for healthcare professionals all over Europe to help their patients manage pain. He is also a chronic pain sufferer and realised that what he had actually written was a Toolkit of pain management skills that he could use to better manage his life and teach others to do the same.
Just like a mechanic needs a set of tools to fix cars, so does someone with chronic pain.
There are 12 tools and to get the best result they need to be used everyday. You need to be an active participant in self managing your pain and not expect your team to do all the work.
- Acceptance- The most important tool, realising that you have chronic pain and want to try and self manage it.
- Get involved- You will need support from family, friends, professionals, these make up your team but you need to put the work in as well.
- Pacing - Don't try to do everything in one go, have frequent breaks and spread it out over the day one bit at a time
- Prioritising- Look at what needs doing and what can wait for another day
- Setting Goals- Make realistic goals daily that you can achieve, you can always ask your team for help
- Be patient- Don't get annoyed with yourself if you are not doing as well as you want, it takes time and you need to realise nothing will change overnight, it may take weeks or months
- Relaxation- This can be anything you find helps to relax tense muscles and calm the mind, meditation, listening to music, reading or having a bath are some examples
- Exercising- This is one of the last things you feel like doing when in pain but it is important even just simple stretches to help tight muscles, gentle swimming or just walking in the water. Over time the body will be grateful for it. Talk with your Physiotherapist about a programme.
- Track progress- Great way to see how well you have been doing and any improvements needed by keeping a diary of your activities.
- Setback plans- Talk to your professionals about this if you are not sure, these are great for when you have flare-up's to help you self manage
- Teamwork- You are not on your own your team are there to help you when you need them, they can help you to track your progress and make action plans.
- Daily practice- This is important and will become routine after a while, all part of self managing pain
