AHSN NENC Leads ESCAPE-pain videos
The AHSN NENC, in collaboration with the Innovation Agency North West Coast (NWC) and the Health Innovation Network, has successfully led a project to enable participants to access the national ESCAPE-pain programme during lockdown.
“Karen and I wanted to help people explore what could be achieved in their own homes using the ESCAPE-pain ethos, signposting people to online support and activity to avoid deterioration, maintain and if possible, improve their baseline.
This simply would not have been possible without the AHSN NENC support in creating, producing and uploading the videos to their website."
ESCAPE-pain is an exercise-based group rehabilitation programme for people aged 45+ with chronic joint pain of the hip and knee.
It is designed to improve function by integrating exercise, education, and self-management strategies to dispel inappropriate health beliefs, alter behaviour, and encourage regular physical activity.
The programme is ideally delivered face-to-face in group settings at a variety of healthcare and community venues. Due to the lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, participants have been unable to consistently access face-to-face ESCAPE-pain and manage chronic joint conditions.
This resource was produced to support the existing ESCAPE-pain app, ESCAPE-pain Online and the virtual delivery model which some sites are offering. The support is useful for service users who prefer this format rather than video resources and was developed with the recognition that some people do not have access to video conferencing facilities.
Victoria Strassheim, Clinical Lead for ESCAPE-pain at the AHSN NENC, filmed a series of remote ESCAPE-pain training videos to give participants immediate online access to the programme once again. Victoria filmed 10 ESCAPE-pain sessions (18 videos in total), which enabled ESCAPE-pain to continue, until such time that normal face-to-face classes can resume, which are considered the gold standard of delivery for the program.
Karen Oliver, Clinical Lead for ESCAPE-pain at the Innovation Agency NWC, has worked alongside Victoria to record and deliver the 10 education sessions included in the remote training videos.
Each full training session includes five videos: Education Session, Warm-Up, Exercise Session, Cool Down and Relaxation Session.
The videos have been designed for participants to complete full ESCAPE-pain sessions at their own pace, and as easily and as safely as possible in their own homes.
The ESCAPE-pain videos can be delivered to participants in lockdown through registered programme facilitators.
Prior to the first lockdown in March 2020, face-to-face ESCAPE pain classes were steadily growing with an increase in sites from 257 to 295 across the UK, from December 2019 to March 2020; the number of participants who completed the programme increased from 16,800 to 19,300 in the same period.
Following the lockdown, 37 sites have transitioned to live virtual delivery, and 452 participants (333 knee and 119 hip) have been able to access the programme this way.
The ESCAPE-pain videos have been viewed over 1,700 times and has helped to support existing services.
"My patients have found it very useful for increasing their knowledge and understanding how to manage OA flare ups."