On Monday 18 July, Health Minister Terry Lake announced $50,000 in new funding for Pain BC's 2017 Pain Summit. Planning for the summit - the second of its kind - is already underway, and this funding will allow us to develop a robust program to bring together people in pain, healthcare providers, researchers, policy makers, and other stakeholders. “Chronic pain is an often invisible challenge for the one in five British Columbians who live with it every day,” Lake said. “Pain BC has been making great strides in supporting patients and their families. This funding will assist with their efforts to share and gain knowledge in this emerging facet of patient care and help ensure more supports for British Columbians living with chronic pain.”
Taking place in early 2017, the two-day summit will focus on creating conversation about pain, prioritizing issues and challenges, identifying solutions, and setting up a plan of action to execute these. Maria Hudspith, our Executive Director, says “The first Provincial Pain Summit identified a lot of priority issues and we’ve made progress on those: educating health-care providers on how to assess and manage pain, creating more options to support people with managing their own pain, and working with health authorities to expand access to pain programs. There is still a lot of work to do and this [2017] summit will bring stakeholders together to identify and address the challenges that still exist for optimal pain management in B.C. We’re grateful for the ministry’s partnership in hosting the summit.”
Click here to view the full news release.
BC Ministry of Health