Pain management strategy worksheet and activity

It’s been a while since I directly posted on practical pain management strategies that can be used as part of activity.  A while ago I developed an activity to use with our pain management programme that involves identifying the skills you might use during three common activities.  I’ve uploaded it here for you to use. Be aware that the photographs are from Google images, so are both of variable quality and some may be copyright.

The way you can use this activity is to ask the person to match the title to the definition of the coping strategy (and yes, there are a lot of debates about the definitions so they are by no means definitive!).  You could ask the person to talk you through the strategies he or she uses, or you could use it during assessment as a means of identifying coping resources the person already has, or could develop.  The three common activities (grocery shopping, going out to a restaurant or bar, gardening) were selected because these three are the sort of things people describe as being difficult and often avoided or carried out with difficulty.

The person can then work through the definitions and place them on the activities to show which strategies they may use – or perhaps the ones that are not so easy to use.

I found this is an activity that less ‘pen and paper’ people can do because it involves less writing, and it opens discussion up because people who would ordinarily not be talkative have something to occupy their hands while talking.  It’s quite a useful activity particularly for practical people, or people who are more kinaesthetic in their mode of learning.

If you wanted to make it more challenging, you could put in a few red herrings – definitions that are less helpful (like rest, avoid, use pain as a guide etc), and use these as a discussion point too.

I hope you enjoy this worksheet – let me know if you do use it, and any modifications you make!

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