Whats Been Happening at Pain Concern?

What’s Been Happening……North of the Border

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• LONG TERM CONDITIONS ALLIANCE In May 2005 we were invited to attend a meeting to look at setting up a Long Term Conditions Alliance in Scotland. The meeting was very positive and Pain Concern now has a representative on the Short Term Task Group set up to take this forward.
• SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT CROSS PARTY GROUP ON CHRONIC PAIN The Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Chronic Pain has recently become active again. Pain Concern had two representatives at the meeting held in December and Kate Kerr from Pain Concern is now Secretary of the Group. The main focus of the meeting was Professor McEwen’s Report on Chronic Pain Services in Scotland and the proposed Consensus Conference on the report being organised by the Scottish Executive. The Conference took place on 8th July and Kate and Heather attended on behalf of Pain Concern. Heather was also asked to speak at the Conference on ‘The Patients Perspective’.
• NORTH BRITISH PAIN ASSOCIATION On the 6th of May the North British Pain Association held its Spring Scientific Meeting. The theme of the meeting was “The McEwen Report – The Way Forward”. Heather was asked again to represent Pain Concern and talk on the Patient’s View.
• ELI LILLY CAMPAIGNING FOR SUCCESS DAY Andrew Scott attended this event hosted by Eli Lilly, on behalf of Pain Concern. The topics covered on the day included looked at ways of raising your organisations profile, interacting with the Scottish Parliament and communicating with the media. Andrew reported he found the event very helpful and that he picked up some very useful ideas.
• NEUROLOGICAL ALLIANCE OF SCOTLAND Pain Concern has been represented at the recent meetings of the Neurological Alliance of Scotland and at the AGM held in April Heather became a member of their committee.
• NHS QIS BEST PRACTICE STATEMENT ON CHRONIC PAIN The NHS Quality Improvement Scotland’s Best Practice Statement on Chronic Pain is due to be published later this year. Pain Concern was involved in the consultation process for this document and we were represented on the Working Group, which was set up. We fed in many comments from our committee members, which we hope will be taken in to account when the final document is published.
• DYSTONIA SOCIETY In January Heather Wallace was a guest speaker for a meeting of the Dystonia Society in Scotland. Members of the Society from all over Scotland attended the meeting.
• CHRONIC DISEASE SELF MANAGMENT In April we were invited, by Arthritis Care to attend a meeting on Chronic Disease Self Management held in Stirling. Lorraine Smith, who attended the event on behalf of Pain Concern, said she found it very positive.
• PAIN AWARENESS DAY EDINBURGH In November Kate Kerr represented Pain Concern at a Pain Awareness day in Edinburgh organised by NHS Lothian. The Purpose of the day was to offer information and support to chronic pain sufferers.
• GLASGOW BACK PAIN SERVICE We continue to work closely with Back Care and on 12th April Heather Wallace attended a One Day Symposium on The Glasgow Back Pain Service. Back Care and Pain Concern have written jointly to Lothian Health commending this service and suggesting they develop a similar service.
• Pain Concern believes that similar services should be available to patients throughout the UK. This would, we believe, lower the incidence of patients developing chronic back pain.
• CAMPAIGNING FOR A GLASGOW PAIN MANAGMENT PROGRAMME We are currently campaigning on behalf of patients, for Glasgow Health Board to fund a much-needed Pain Management Programme. We will continue to lobby on the issue.