Since becoming a proud Pain Support Line volunteer in May 2019, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about pain physiology and pain management, meet intelligent Pain BC employees and volunteer alongside some of the kindest and most compassionate individuals I have ever met.

Despite having a limited income, Bev is a regular donor to Pain BC because she deeply values the organization’s work to improve the lives of people with pain.

“I am exhausted and hopeless.” This is just one of the many discouraging statements I hear regularly from clients who contact Pain BC’s Pain Support Line to seek advice, resources or even just a listening ear.

In spring of 2019, Health Canada established the Canadian Pain Task Force (CPTF) to recommend an improved approach to pain care, education, research and data monitoring in Canada.

The growing concern over the community transmission of COVID-19 can be overwhelming, but please know that you're not alone with pain. During this time, Pain BC is committed to continuing to do what we’ve always done: working towards a future where no one is alone with pain. 

Chronic pain impacts people of all ages, genders and from all communities, but when pain is complicated by trauma and systemic racism, effective health care can become particularly difficult to access.

Pain BC applauds the launch today of a national online public consultation on chronic pain by the Canadian Pain Task Force (CPTF). The consultation will inform the Task Force’s work, including a report to Health Canada in June 2020 that will outline elements of an improved approach to pain in Canada.

Sarah Sandusky is a Pain BC board member who first found out about the organization while providing a job reference for a former colleague. While she didn’t know about Pain BC at the time, Sarah was no stranger to the devastating effects chronic pain can have on a person’s quality of life, having lived with pain for nearly a decade.

Dr. Judy Dercksen works as a general practitioner in Quesnel, BC. With a population of less than 30,000 people in the city and surrounding area, Quesnel doesn’t have many of the specialized health services available in big cities.

At the young of 29, Eileen Davidson was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic illness which is the leading cause of long-term disability in Canadians of working age.

The following blog post was written by Rebecca McDonald, B.Sc., M.O.T., who is the co-founder of the British Columbia Pain Collective, a community of health care professionals to advance the understanding of pain neuroscience, rehabilitation and recovery. 

This past spring, Health Canada established the Canadian Pain Task Force (CPTF) to identify and address the barriers that prevent people with persistent pain from receiving the care and treatment they need. The Task Force released its first report in June, which assesses the current state of chronic pain care, education and research in Canada and highlights the profound impact of chronic pain on Canadians.

Keith Meldrum is no stranger to living with chronic pain, which he developed after being involved in a car accident nearly 34 years ago. Although his injuries eventually healed following years of surgeries, his pain persisted without a clear cause. It was only in 2005, nearly 20 years following the accident, that he was diagnosed with neuropathic pain while receiving treatment from an interventional pain clinic.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, the Pain Society of Alberta, HELP Alberta's Pain, and the Alberta Medical Association Section of Chronic Pain recently announced the Alberta Pain Strategy at the 13th Annual Alberta Pain Society Conference in Banff, Alberta.