Pain Management Unit

Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases
Upper Borough Walls
Bath
BA1 1RL

Tel: 01225 473427
Fax: 01225 473461
Web: www.bath.ac.uk/pain-management
Best time to telephone: normal office hours.

The Bath PMU is part of the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD) and is a centre of excellence for the delivery of pain management and rehabilitation in the UK. The unit specialises in the delivery of intensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation on a residential basis for adults and adolescents with chronic pain.

Pain can begin for many reasons and can continue for months - in some case for life. Sometimes multiple investigations will have found no cause; nevertheless the effects of chronic pain can be devastating. Social activities, family life and work all suffer as a result of chronic pain. The PMU in Bath uses a cognitive behavioural approach to working with people who have chronic pain. The aim of the programme is to enable participants to change ways they respond to pain and to improve their quality of life. As evidence of this, an adult participant of the 100th pain management programme said, "I can't" has become "I certainly can!"

The pain management programme is delivered by an interdisciplinary team and focuses on increasing function and a return to age appropriate activities. The adult residential programmes run for three or four weeks, there are also out-patient programmes which run for six weeks. On the adolescent programme each young person attends for three weeks with an accompanying adult usually a parent. The core programme components are:

• Exercise & fitness.
• Goal setting, planning and pacing.
• Family oriented cognitive behavioural therapy.
• Pain education.
• Healthy lifestyle.
• Habit change, mindfulness and values clarification.
• Activity management including leisure, work, education, school.

Patients can be referred either by a GP or consultant specialist. Contact the unit for details of NHS and private costs.