GIRFT Handbook supports clinicians to have clear and compassionate conversations around chronic pain

23rd Oct 2026

A new handbook supporting clinicians to have more effective conversations with patients living with chronic pain is now available. 

The chronic pain team at NHS England's Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme brought together people with lived experience and expert clinicians to voice what they want healthcare providers to understand and communicate about the condition. Their insights have shaped the new handbook, which offers practical guidance to help all healthcare professionals explain pain in a way that is understandable, validating and empowering for patients. 

The handbook features checklists of what clinicians need to know on the themes that matter most in chronic pain, and includes examples of phrasing and terminology which can help to explain points clearly and compassionately. 

Co-badged by the British Pain Society, Faculty of Pain Medicine, Arthritis UK, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, Royal College of Occupational Therapists and the Physiotherapy Pain Association, the resource also contains an extensive list of, and links to, a range of further resources – books, booklets, videos, podcasts and websites – which may be useful to adult patients and children and young people. 

Click to read and access What matter to patients: A GIRFT guide to chronic pain >