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ESCAPE-pain Providers

We support professionals to implement the ESCAPE-pain programme.

Read more about how you can become a provider.

ESCAPE-pain is an award winning, evidence-based group rehabilitation programme for people with chronic joint pain, that integrates educational self-management and coping strategies with an exercise regimen personalised for each participant.

What programmes are available?

  • ESCAPE-pain for knees and hips, designed to benefit people with chronic knee and hip pain
  • ESCAPE-pain for backs, designed to benefit people with chronic low back pain

The two programmes are complementary, but operate separately with their own evidence, participant eligibility criteria, session content and facilitator training requirements.

Who can deliver the ESCAPE-pain programme?

ESCAPE-pain can be delivered by a range of professionals such as physiotherapists, osteopaths and fitness instructors. Facilitators must be trained to deliver each of the two programmes. To learn more about the facilitator training courses, eligibility requirements and schedule of dates/locations, visit the facilitator training page.

Where can ESCAPE-pain be delivered?

The flexibility of the ESCAPE-pain programme means it can be delivered in a variety of locations including outpatient physiotherapy departments, leisure centres/gyms and community settings, such as church halls and community centres.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guidelines

ESCAPE-pain delivers the NICE core recommendations of exercise and education for the management of osteoarthritis and low back pain. The programme was referenced in the original NICE Guidelines for the Management of Osteoarthritis [2008], and adopted as a case study in NICE’s Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention programme [2013]. The NICE guidelines for the care and management of osteoarthritis were revised in 2014 (CG17). The NICE guidelines for the management of low back pain were revised in 2016 (NG59).

Supporting Documents

Economic Evaluation Case Study:

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Information for Clinical Commissioning Groups

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Cheaper (and more effective) by the dozen

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Cost Savings and Return on Investment calculator

Using local population data, this tool extrapolates net annual savings of ESCAPE-pain on community-based care, medications and total health and social care.

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What our community has to say

ESCAPE-pain at Healthiness Ltd.

‘We had one gentleman attending a programme whose ultimate goal was simply to be able to put on his underwear without help – he was not able to bend down, and the pain was too great. His wife had to help him get dressed. He came to us after a few weeks into the programme and said, ‘This morning, I put on my underwear on my own for the first time in about 15 years’. That’s what the programme is all about. He was absolutely delighted that the programme had enabled him to do something that he’d taken for granted he was never going to be able to do again.’

Andy Ireland

Programme Director

ESCAPE-pain at South-West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

‘People can attend a group that’s not too overwhelming in terms of size and where they’re with other people in similar circumstances. There’s a camaraderie that helps people overcome any initial nervousness and provides plenty of motivation to try new things. I love it when after the programme people decide to walk home together or share car journeys.’

Martha Cooke

Physiotherapist