Bath Centre for Pain Services
Treating Veterans
Chronic Pain
Chronic musculoskeletal injuries continue to be a leading cause of medical discharge from the Armed Forces. Driven by the extreme physical strain of service life, nearly half of veterans live with daily chronic pain. These conditions frequently resist standard clinical treatments and grow increasingly complex when combined with service-related psychological trauma.
And Trauma
In pain services, it's common to also see PTSD, and the two conditions seem to reinforce each other. Treatment services need to be able to understand and deal with both.
Military Culture
Military training builds resilience and coping skills, where everyday extra-ordinary events become the norm. Yet, when living with enduring conditions, small lifestyle adjustments make the biggest difference to quality of life. This means adapting familiar service habits: balancing self-reliance with an understanding of your pain, communicating your needs openly, and adopting steady, paced movement designed to safely manage chronic symptoms.
BCPS and Veterans
We have treated veterans as part of our standard NHS pain rehabilitation programmes for decades. We don't claim to be a veteran-specific service or to offer veterans-only programmes. But we are committed to providing a welcoming and informed environment to those who have served. We treat people of all ages, no matter how long since discharge. We recognise the Armed Forces Covenant.
Treatment
We maintain good working relationships with veterans' organisations such as Op RESTORE and Op COURAGE. We provide intensive residential pain rehabilitation, as described elsewhere in this site. Many veterans will be experienced with rehab; but they will not have encountered a cohesive psychological / physical approach like BCPS.
Getting here
This is an NHS service and has NHS access rules. The main one is: you have to be in touch with your local specialist pain service in order to get here. Our treatment is intensive and expensive - people aren't allowed to 'skip' their local Pain Clinic in their local hospital. This has to be accessed first. Get in touch if you want to know more. Referrals should ideally come from a Pain Specialist, but can also come from a GP.
