Co-design means working together to come up with solutions, with everyone having a say. In the EQUIPP project, that includes people living with chronic pain, community members, and healthcare professionals. No matter your background, your ideas and experiences are important. Co-design gives you the chance to help shape the campaign—what it says, how it looks, and how it’s shared. It’s not just about giving feedback; it’s about being part of the process and helping create something that really works for the people it’s meant to support.

Being part of the EQUIPP co-design team means helping shape the campaign from the ground up. You’ll join in-person workshops where we chat about ideas, share real-life experiences, and come up with creative ways to get important messages about pain across. These sessions are relaxed and hands-on—think group chats, sketching ideas, and testing out early versions of campaign materials. You’ll get to say what’s working, what’s not, and how we can make things better. It’s all about working together and making sure the final campaign really fits the needs of your community.

Chronic pain is pain that persists for longer than three months, often continuing even after the original injury or illness has healed. Chronic pain can be influenced by a range of factors including stress, emotions, sleep, and past experiences, and may not always have a clear physical cause.

We’re now in Stage 2 of EQUIPP, where we invite community members to help co-design a local education campaign about chronic pain. Starting June 2025, we’ll run a series of in-person workshops in Mount Gambier, Naracoorte, Millicent, Hamilton, Ararat, Stawell, and Horsham. These workshops will build on what we learned during the engagement stage and focus on how important pain messages should be communicated. Together with participants, we’ll generate ideas for how the campaign can best connect with and support each local community. To become part of EQUIPP, click on the tab “Get involved” to learn more.

Chronic pain is a major health issue in Australia that affects millions of people and puts a huge strain on individuals, families, and the healthcare system. It’s more common than diabetes, mental health conditions, or kidney disease—and it’s getting worse. One in five Australians over 45 live with chronic pain, and it can seriously impact their ability to work, stay active, and enjoy life. Despite how common it is, many people don’t get the support or care they need. Often, the right advice, education, and treatment options aren’t being used, and there’s a gap between what the best care looks like and what people actually receive. We’re doing this project to help close that gap—by working with communities to raise awareness, shift expectations, and make it easier for people to get the care that can actually help.

We’re running a pain education campaign because better understanding of chronic pain can make a real difference. Many people with pain aren’t told how pain works or what they can do to manage it—and that can lead to fear, confusion, and treatments that don’t help. Research shows that when people understand that chronic pain is often linked to an overprotective nervous system (not just tissue damage), they feel more in control and more hopeful. Our goal is to share clear, helpful messages about pain in ways that truly connect with local communities. By improving knowledge and changing the conversation, we hope to support better care, better choices, and better outcomes for people living with pain.