Background Unmasking Pain (UP) was developed in response to the frustration of pain livers, who felt that their experiences were often ignored or diminished to a number on a scale along with feeling they did not have adequate forms of expression to tell their story. Through a series of workshops, people participated in creative activities from dance and drawing to puppetry, music and nature walks to find new ways of exploring and talking about their individual experiences. This creative approach even saw participants ‘prescribed’ a music treatment to take home. Working with a tabla player and other musicians, participants chose sounds and music that inspired or relaxed them, that were then turned into their own personalised recordings. In another, a puppeteer shared handmade puppets of each of the participants who held conversations with themselves through their puppets. Artists shared their own experiences of living with pain and creative journeys of learning how to tell their stories, inspiring participants to find their own voice and unlock their own creativity (see Johnson et al. , this meeting).

Methods The UP project has been evaluated using a range of mixed methods, involving subjective qualitative questionnaires, a range of objective quantitative methods, including activity, sleep and physiological measures, and novel AI machine-learned morphological and thermal imaging techniques as indicators of physical and mental health, respectively; A selected subset of participants were monitored using a fit-bit device throughout the UP programme and a follow-up period of 3 months (n=4).

Results In the Durham group (n=12), 100% of the participants’ need for pain medication has either decreased or stayed the same during the project. 100% of the participants’ receptiveness to alternative pain management has increased or stayed the same during the project. 100% of the participants’ pain catastrophising scores have decreased during the project. 100% of the participants’ confidence scores have increased during the project. Based on the fit-bit recordings, a mean 2-fold increase in steps, 30% increase in sleep, and 5bpm reduction in heart rate, was achieved over the period of the programme, and maintained. Early evidence indicated an increase in emotional arousal at the end of each creativity session. Quotes from participants ‘It has changed my entire perspective on creativity’; ‘I realise I do not need to rely on pain medication now, I can use other methods to take my mind off the pain’

Conclusion The UP programme achieved a significant positive change in behaviour in the chronic pain participants, which will form the basis for our 10-creative Footsteps to living well with pain programme.