A public health campaign that changed how the public understands persistent pain is being adapted for the workplace, with two NHS Trusts in the Tees Valley serving as testbeds. The problem is that outdated beliefs—that pain equals physical damage and that work makes it worse—drive unnecessary sickness absence and disability. These misconceptions harm both workers and employers, yet no evidence-based campaign has targeted workplace culture directly. This development grant funds the essential groundwork: forming a public involvement group of workers with and without pain, assembling a stakeholder group of occupational health professionals, and testing how to evaluate the intervention. If the full research project proceeds, it could give employers and employees a shared, accurate understanding of persistent musculoskeletal pain—replacing stigma with practical support. That shift might reduce work absence and help people stay in jobs they would otherwise leave. The immediate output is a stronger research application, not a workplace product. But the preparatory work—team cohesion, evaluation design, stakeholder engagement—determines whether the campaign will work when it reaches real offices, warehouses, and hospital wards.
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Research question: Can we improve the workplace culture towards persistent musculoskeletal pain? Background: Persistent musculoskeletal pain (PMP) is one of the leading causes of work disability in the UK, yet we know that helping people with health problems, such as PMP, to remain in work has tangible benefits. One of the main difficulties relates to misunderstandings about PMP, which reflects an outdated biomechanical understanding of pain. A key example is the misunderstanding that pain is only caused by physical damage and work perpetuates the damage, meaning that leaving/staying off work can seem the best option both to workers and employers. This creates a need to shift the workplace culture around work and PMP, one that reflects current understanding of pain and how people with PMP can be supported to maintain work ability. Creating that cultural shift requires collaboration with all partners in and around the workplace, to promote an evidence-informed approach to pain, thus overcoming misconceptions and the stigma that stems from them. Flippin Pain is a successful public health campaign, underpinned by Pain Science Education, co-developed with people with PMP, which can improve public understanding of PMP. We propose to adapt this campaign, so that the content and delivery approach is optimised for the workplace. Aims and Objectives We propose to co-develop, deliver, and evaluate a workplace-based public health education intervention to improve musculoskeletal health and reduce work absence. The objective of this Development Grant is to undertake essential preparatory work to inform the full Research project. Methods Two NHS Trusts in the Tees Valley have agreed to act as our development partners for six work packages: 1) team building; 2) forming a Public Involvement and Engagement (PIE) group, 3) forming a wide stakeholder group; 4) assessing evaluation methods; 5) preparing the Research Grant application; and 6) disseminating the findings. The PIE group will represent the workforce (with and without pain) and all PIE activity will be underpinned by the NIHR Ethical Practice Guidance for Public Involvement and Community Engagement. The stakeholder group will represent professionals with work-health involvement. We will recruit a diverse range of perspectives and carry out workshops to explore knowledge gaps in our research methods, interventions, and evaluability design. Additionally, we will carry out masterclass workshops within the research team to share our areas of expertise, including expert-by-lived-experience, thus integrating our specialist knowledge to feed into campaign implementation in the Research Award. Timelines for delivery WP1: 10/25-02/26: Team cohesion and transdisciplinarity. WP2: 10/25-03/26: PIE project guidance and Programme Theory development. WP3: 10/25-03/26: Stakeholder group formation and engagement. WP4: 10/25-04/26: Evaluability assessment. WP5: 11/25-06/26: Research Award application drafting and submission. WP6: 01/26-06/26: Dissemination. Anticipated impact and dissemination This preparatory work will inform our Work and Health Research Award application and foster a strong sense of team cohesion amongst the researchers and PIE and stakeholder groups. The latter will help inform a variety of dissemination strategies, including the Flippin Pain website and social media channels.
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