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Research

Pioneering Pain Garden project receives national recognition

10 November 2014

 

An innovative project to help people visualise the impact of chronic pain has been recognised at a prestigious awards ceremony.

The Pain Garden, created by Professor of Rehabilitation at Teesside University Denis Martin and Animmersion, a Teesside DigitalCity company, was Highly Commended at the Building Better Healthcare Awards.

Held in London on 6 November, the awards were attended by over 500 people and saw the Pain Garden recognised in the Best Product for Improving Patient Outcome category. The Pain Garden project was funded by Arthritis Research UK.

The Pain Garden uses a map to help people who endure regular pain to create a ‘garden’ of their suffering. It aids people to understand the overall impact of chronic persistent pain on their wellbeing and helps them in describe it to doctors, friends and relatives.

By answering questions relating to emotion, sensory experience and wellbeing, a digital garden, accessed via a website, is grown that thrives or wilts as a patient’s health and wellbeing alters.

Professor Martin said: 'Pain can be confusing for people as it generates different emotions. They find it difficult to get this across. Getting people to understand the impact of chronic pain is important to help them deal with it.

'Development work on the Pain Garden started over two years ago and we are delighted to be receiving this kind of recognition. It is a project we truly believe will have a positive impact on peoples’ lives.'

The Pain Garden was developed from a multi-dimensional questionnaire used in previous studies. Patients found the questionnaire beneficial as it gave them a more holistic view of their pain experience. Professor Martin and Animmersion explored how they could use the information gathered as the basis for developing the garden.

Professor Martin has worked in the area of chronic pain for around 20 years, first at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh and now at Teesside University.

He added: 'People get a huge amount of benefit through linking emotions they often feel with their pain. For example people may feel anxious and angry because of the pain they suffer – and tying that together has a positive impact on their wellbeing.

'We were looking for some way to make use of that and we came up with the idea of using animation and graphic design to illustrate the nature of pain and how it changes.

'The idea of a garden came about as pain has different dimensions: sensory, emotional and general wellbeing that can sit as well defined items themselves - but they all link together.

'When you use the metaphor of a garden you have the garden as a whole but also within it distinct elements like plants, trees and water features. When you put it all together you create the garden.

'With pain there are sensory, emotional and general wellbeing aspects that are discrete in themselves - put it together and you get the pain experience.'

Managing Director of Animmersion, Dominic Lusardi, said: 'Professor Martin had the idea of being able to visualise pain. The experience of pain is very subjective and hard to describe with words so he came to us with the idea of a garden that was created by answers you gave to a questionnaire.

'In creating the garden different questions target different areas of wellbeing that exist within the garden. If you answer positively then that part of the garden will be flourishing.

'This garden means a patient’s experience of pain becomes something visual that those going through a similar experience can identify with and compare with their own experience.

'A major problem for people with chronic pain is explaining it to others. You can’t see pain which makes it difficult to appreciate what the person is going through. By helping clinicians, friends and relatives to understand the nature and impact of that pain you help the patient.'


 
 
 
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