Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Gold Winning Flippin’ Pain in Barnsley
I am passionate about engaging the public with pain, education, science, and our living reality. As part of this I am proud to be associated with Flippin’ Pain™, a public health campaign “…to change the way we think about, talk about and treat persistent pain”. In February, Flippin’ Pain visited West Yorkshire and delivered ‘When Pain Gets in the Way’ events to 75 healthcare professionals across the Kirklees and Barnsley areas. I was honoured to be part of the expert panel that supported the event in Barnsley, although it is Cormac Ryan, a Community Pain Champion for Flippin’ Pain and Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation, Teesside University, that always steals the show with his fun packed educational talk about the ‘ins and outs of pain'.
For me, the event in Barnsley was memorable because some of our level 6 physiotherapy students unexpectantly turned up. Our students had made the effort to travel down from Leeds in the middle of a hectic schedule of teaching and assessment. It was inspiring to see our students engaging in learning opportunities beyond our formal curricula and contributing in such a positive manner to the Flippin’ Pain event.
Professor Cormac Ryan, Teesside University and Community Pain Champion for Flippin’ Pain
A key part of any Flippin’ Pain event is a panel discussion. The panel comprises clinical experts, research experts and people with experience of living with, and sometimes recovering from, long-term pain. It is the stories from people with living experience that has the greatest impact on the audience. Quite simply, clinical and research experts have knowledge, so-called evidence, experience, and advice, but it is the ‘patient experts’ that have the wisdom. Wisdom brings knowledge to life by attributing meaning through experience to the educational information. Story-based wisdom is a potent mechanism to get people to begin to curiously explore alternative perspectives and possibilities.
Feedback from the audience captures the power of the Flippin’ Pain approach to flip our understanding of Pain. As one delegate commented, “It [Flippin’ Pain] has made me re-think how I can approach people suffering with persistent pain.” In fact, the approach is so impactful it has been recognised nationally. On 21 March 2024, Flippin’ Pain won the Gold award for the ‘Most Impactful Partnership in Preventative Healthcare' at the HSJ Partnership Awards. You can find out more about Flippin’ Pain here; and previous blogs about the Pedalling Prof of Pain’s Flippin’ Pain adventures here.
Team members from Flippin’ Pain, NHS North East & Cumbria ICB, Connect Health, You’ve Got This and Tees Valley Sport
Professor Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson is Professor of Pain and Analgesia. He is an international expert on the science of pain and its management and the world leader on transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). He has published over 300 peer reviewed articles.
