Lambeth highlighted patient advocacy in Chronic Pain Month

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Patients sitting in a circle talking with a doctor who is taking notes.

Supporting people with chronic pain is one of our priorities within Lambeth Together. Our Neighbourhood and Wellbeing Delivery Alliance (NWDA) has been working with Centric to set up a Chronic Pain Patient Advisory Group (PAG).

As September has been Pain Awareness Month we wanted to wrap it up by highlighting how this group strengthens the voice of people living with chronic pain and how it feed into our work in Lambeth.

 

Chronic pain has been identified as an area where more support is needed in Lambeth

Chronic pain is a highly individual experience. People react to living with pain in many different ways. People with chronic pain can have difficulties carrying out daily activities, including work, leisure, and exercise. This can be very distressing; people often describe feeling low and anxious.

  • In Lambeth, pain is the second-most-common long-term condition amongst residents, affecting 13% of the population.
  • Black people are almost twice as likely to supper from chronic pain as White or Asian people.
  • Females are 1.5 times more likely to suffer from chronic pain than males.
  • People living in deprived areas are more likely to suffer from chronic pain.
  • The prevalence rate among black women in Lambeth was twice that of the general population in Lambeth

Conversations with residents, health and care professionals have shown us that we need to think about new support for people with chronic pain, including lifestyle changes and management techniques.

Lambeth’s Chronic Pain Patient Advisory Group was established last year

In 2022 the NWDA established a Chronic Pain Patient Advisory Group (PAG). The ambition was that this group of diverse individuals would enable the health system to learn about their experiences of living with chronic pain, attend and provide input into our chronic pain workstream meetings, and engage in genuine collaboration on all matters related to chronic pain, including reviewing our online and offline resources and refreshing our support offer.

The PAG has 8 chronic pain patients who live in Lambeth. The PAG come together in a collaborative space facilitated by Centric, which provides a platform for their voices to be heard. This is then fed back to health and care providers who can make informed decisions regarding support to offer people with chronic pain. These patients have reported that they feel that their voices and experiences are valued, heard and making changes in a system that is set out to meet their needs.

The Chronic Pain PAG will run for a further 6-months so that we can continue to listen to patients’ feedback and embed this into the chronic pain pathway.

Further information about chronic pain management in Lambeth

Chronic pain is a priority for the NWDA and this is reflected within the Health and Care Plan.

Read more about the NWDA’s chronic pain work.

See Lambeth Together’s ‘Our Health, Our Lambeth’ health and car plan.

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