D.I.Y Pain Management

I have been told the wait for getting into the pain management clinic is 9-12 months...this is through the hospital system-how crap is that? I asked one doctor what people are supposed to do in the mean time and he said just deal with it. The system is all wrong, people who need help with pain don't have time to wait a year for help, in that time it wouldn't surprise me if some people actually killed themselves because they couldn't deal that long.

All my specialist appointments etc are covered by ACC but as far as Dr Steve knew, they only cover pain management if you have a work related injury-whats with that? Of course mine happened at uni, not a workplace so I'm technically screwed and will have to wait my luck in the public system.
It just so happens that I am starting to be assessed at the ISIS Rehabilitation Centre because of my previous head injuries, and up at ISIS as well as the neurologists etc, part of their service happens to be pain management! Because I am already a patient being seen up there, Dr Steve is going to see if we cant bypass the system and have me seen for pain management as well as my ongoing head stuff. I'm not going to hope, I don't want to be disappointed (but I really do hope that his plan works).

As part of physio school, we have a psychologist giving us lectures. He has covered a lot of CBT etc and I think its a big part of pain management, maybe I can teach myself?
I have also been eying up the pain management and chronic pain books in the med library...is there a bit of D.I.Y in order? can you teach yourself or is there more to pain management than I know about?