{"id":747802,"date":"2026-08-24T03:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/747802\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T03:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:40:09","slug":"belfast-pain-rehabilitation-programme-at-knockbracken-gives-patients-back-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/747802\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast pain rehabilitation programme at Knockbracken &#8216;gives patients back control&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ten years ago, Walkden, 58, was prescribed strong pain medication for a long-standing stomach injury, but said it only provided short-term relief and made her feel worse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, she found new ways of coping with her condition following a three-week intensive programme at Knockbracken Health Care Park in Belfast, which teaches  psychological techniques to deal with pain rather than relying on medication.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The tools have allowed me to become the boss of the pain instead of it controlling me,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I am not afraid to exercise, especially to walk, I even talk to the pain but I no longer allow it to prevent me from living a life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Understanding the source of my pain and what it is doing to me mentally, never mind physically, has been life changing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Data collected from the Knockbracken programme has formed part of new research from Queen&#8217;s University Belfast (QUB) and the Belfast Health Trust.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">While more than 100 people within the Belfast Trust physically took part, the study also analysed the data of 491 patients living with chronic pain in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It found that 42% of those were living in the most deprived areas and reported much higher levels of distress, disability and pain-related burden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten years ago, Walkden, 58, was prescribed strong pain medication for a long-standing stomach injury, but said it&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-747802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}