(Information submitted 2015)
Our service runs a pain management programme (PMP) along ACT lines, integrating the core principles of acceptance and commitment with physical and pharmacological therapies. At the heart of the PMP is an assumption that greater physical and emotional flexibility are the best ways to learn to live well with potentially disabling conditions such as chronic back pain, regional pain syndrome and fibromyalgia. The programme has developed over the past two years away from a (CBT) focus on clients' goals toward an emphasis on personal values and committed action. The programme emphasises our ability as human beings to live well with pain and reflects influences broadly sympathetic to ACT such as compassion-focuses therapy and the writings of Pema Chodron. Programme results consistently include clients' greater physical reconditioning, improved self-efficacy, a reduction in medication use and fewer medical appointments.