Researchers with the School of Psychology at NUI Galway are currently inviting children aged from 7-12 years  and their parents, to help develop an effective pain management programme.

The programme will be designed for young children who have experienced chronic or recurrent pain for three months or more and will be be computer-based and accessed online.

Group sessions will be run at a number of locations across Ireland including Dublin, Cork, Galway and Belfast. Children with any type of chronic or persistent pain including abdominal pain, back pain, muscular pain, headache and combined or widespread pains, are invited to participate.

The researchers say children and their parents will use art materials to think, draw or write about ideas or topics which they think are important for children and parents dealing with chronic pain.

Participants will be shown a computer-based programme designed to support pain management and are invited to give feedback, based on their personal experiences of chronic pain management.

The project will involve just one meeting with a group of children and one meeting with a group of parents to enable the researchers to decide what course of action would work best for this type of treatment programme. The organisers say group sessions will be fun and interactive, lasting 30-40 minutes.

NUI Galway PhD student and group facilitator, Angeline Traynor said: "Chronic pain is increasingly prevalent in young people and can have a significant impact on the day-to-day quality of life. The most common types of chronic pain in children are abdominal pain, back pain, musculoskeletal pain, headache and combined or widespread pains."

"Participation is voluntary and anything you say during the group session is strictly confidential. These sessions will give children and their parents the chance to inform our research by telling us of their own personal experiences with chronic pain management."

This programme is part of a PhD research project being carried out at NUI Galway by PhD student Angeline Traynor with Dr Brian McGuire of the university's School of Psychology and the Centre for Pain Research. The study is supported by Galway University Foundation.

Anyone willing to help with this important study or would like further information, are asked to contact Angeline Traynor at a.traynor2@nuigalway.ie or 086 0378562 or go directly to www.helpkidswithpain.com