Sometimes, when acute injuries are not managed effectively, symptoms can turn ‘chronic’ or ‘persistent’ in nature.

Chronic pain is defined as pain that continues after the natural healing process should be complete or beyond three months and can lead to long-term physical, psychological and social problems, severely affecting an individual’s quality of life. Physiotherapeutic management of chronic pain has to be centred on the patient’s needs and identify the reason for the lack of improvement or rehabilitation progression as early as possible as research tells us that 1 in 4 people who suffer from chronic pain will lose their job as a result of how persistent pain affects their life.

Physiotherapy is well-researched to enable people with chronic conditions to remain at work and effectively self-manage their symptoms through advice, treatment and graded home exercise programmes.