Pain self-management: Theory and process for clinicians

Chronic non-cancer pain remains an important public health problem that seriously affects people's everyday lives including their family, social and working lives. One approach to improving patient care at the primary care level is self-management education. This chapter provides an overview of key self-management principles, successful program models, critical process elements and their impact on patient outcomes and practical tips for program start-up. The Chronic Pain Self-Management Program and the Chronic Angina Self-Management Program are pain-focused self-management programs that were derived from the Stanford University Patient Education Research Center model of self-management. Whether community-based in person or delivered in digital formats, a critical first step in launching a pain self-management program is conducting a comprehensive needs assessment. Many patient education programs in the past have fallen short because their content has been driven by the input of clinicians alone.