What is ESCAPE-pain?
The ESCAPE-pain programme, which stands for Enabling Self-Management and Coping with Arthritic Pain using Exercise (ESCAPE), was developed by Professor Mike Hurley at St George’s University of London and Kingston University to help people with knee, hip and back pain. In 2013 it was identified as a local innovation that was ready for adoption by the Health Innovation Network (HIN). It has since been supported by Versus Arthritis, Sport England, the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA), and the AHSN Network (including Wessex AHSN). In 2020 it was named Musculoskeletal (MSK) Initiative of the Year by Health Service Journal.
Wessex Picture
During the period August 2018 - March 2020, Wessex AHSN has been actively involved in the spread and adoption of ESCAPE-pain programmes across our geography, funding the training for 65 new facilitators, facilitating networking events and supporting set up of 25 sites across Wessex. Programmes have been run in a variety of settings including physio gyms, local leisure centres and community venues.
Covid-19 Update
For trained ESCAPE-pain facilitators, who work at a site that was delivering face to face classes prior to Covid-19, there are a number of ways in which you can support your ESCAPE-pain participants/ waiting lists to manage their condition until you are able to resume face to face classes. Please see the ESCAPE-pain website for further information https://escape-pain.org/covidsupport or email hello@escape-pain.org for further details.
National Picture
During the last eight years the HIN has worked with partners (including Wessex AHSN) to support the scale-up of ESCAPE-pain to over 300 locations across the UK. It has been used by around 20,000 participants, saving £30 million in health and social care costs. Participants frequently report that their pain improves, they take fewer medications and find they are more able to get back to doing the things they enjoy.
The longer-term future of the programme has now been secured through a partnership between HIN and national charity Orthopaedic Research UK (ORUK). From here onwards, the charity which works to improve bone, joint and muscle wellbeing through education, training and research, will be operating and developing ESCAPE-pain under licence from the HIN. Key members of the ESCAPE-pain team will continue to run ESCAPE-pain at Orthopaedic Research UK, ensuring a seamless transfer.
The full announcement can be found on the ESCAPE-pain website, and you can read more about Orthopaedic Research UK on their website.
Queries regarding the ESCAPE-pain programme can now be sent to escape-pain@oruk.org
