What matters to patients: A GIRFT guide to chronic pain (21 October 2026)

Summary

A new handbook supporting clinicians to have more effective conversations with patients living with chronic pain is now available on the GIRFT website. 

The GIRFT chronic pain team brought together people with lived experience and expert clinicians to voice what they want healthcare providers to understand and communicate about the condition. Their insights have shaped the new handbook, which offers practical guidance to help all healthcare professionals explain pain in a way that is understandable, validating and empowering for patients. 

The handbook features checklists of what clinicians need to know on the themes that matter most in chronic pain, and includes examples of phrasing and terminology which can help to explain points clearly and compassionately. 

Co-badged by the British Pain Society, Faculty of Pain Medicine, Arthritis UK, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, Royal College of Occupational Therapists and the Physiotherapy Pain Association, the resource also contains an extensive list of, and links to, a range of further resources – books, booklets, videos, podcasts and websites – which may be useful to adult patients and children and young people.

The term chronic pain refers to persistent pain lasting longer than three months, including both chronic primary and chronic secondary pain. One in three people over the age of 16 have chronic pain and one in five children and young people are affected, leading to significant absenteeism from work and school and many hospital visits.   

GIRFT’s work in the specialty has shown that when patients lack clear, trustworthy explanations about chronic pain, and its causes, persistence and management, it can lead to ineffective healthcare utilisation (repeat visits, escalating interventions), as well as avoidable physical and mental deterioration, misunderstandings, frustration and confusion for the patient.