Centre for Active Lifestyle Management (CALM)
The CALM service is a multi-professional team offering information, support and advice to both patients and professionals to help them manage the problems caused by chronic pain. Patients are seen either individually or in groups.
Location
Assessments and individual appointments are on Bell ward, 2nd Floor Ravensbourne Block, Green Zone, University Hospital Lewisham.
The group outpatient programme is located in the Owen Education Centre, University Hospital Lewisham.
Contact details
The CALM service can be contacted via email or telephone. The telephone is staffed Monday & Tuesday (8:30am – 5:00pm). An answer machine is available at all other times.
T: 020 8690 0174
E: LH.CALM@nhs.net
Who is the service for?
The CALM service is available to adults (18+ years) who are registered with a GP in the London borough of Lewisham and have chronic, non-malignant, musculo-skeletal pain.
What services are provided?
The CALM service offers individual and group sessions which cover a range of topics including:
Topics covered in the programme include:
- Information about chronic pain and how it is different from acute pain
- Explanation about pain diagnoses, investigations and treatment
- Goal setting and problem solving
- The importance of movement
- Planning and pacing of daily activities
- Dealing with the distress caused by persistent pain
- Improving communication
- Medications prescribed for chronic pain
- Relaxation and distraction
- Dealing with flare-ups in pain.
How can you get a referral?
Patients can only be referred to the CALM service by a pain specialist such as a consultant in chronic pain, pain nurse specialist, physiotherapist (including musculoskeletal triage), rheumatologist or orthopaedic surgeon. Only patients who are registered with a GP in the London borough of Lewisham can be referred.
Once referred to the CALM service, patients are offered the opportunity to attend a Programme Education Session (PES). This meeting explains the complexities of chronic pain and the content of the programme. If someone is interested in attending the programme they need to opt-in by telephone.
What else do you need to know?
Patients are asked to bring a list of their medication with them to their assessment appointment. Additionally, they are advised to bring shorts/t-shirt for the physical examination. It is also helpful for them to bring information relating to appointments (both at Lewisham and other hospitals) for their pain.
Why choose the Centre for Active Lifestyle Management?
- The CALM service is run by a multi-professional team. This means patients and other health care professionals have access to the specialist knowledge of a physiotherapist, nurse and psychologists experienced in the field of chronic pain.
Key staff
- Dr Stephanie Jarrett, Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Sarah MacNeil, Clinical Physiotherapist Specialist
- Tamzin Bunton, Clinical Nurse Specialist