Frequently Asked Questions

Chronic pain is a disease affecting 7.5 million people in Canada and this number is anticipated to rise 17.5% by 2030. People who live with pain do not and should not have to wait to get support with self-management. However, access to specialized care is fraught with challenges with wait-times of up to 2 years. There are a lot of free virtual resources available to support people who live with pain, but they are spread out across the Web and navigation is challenging. The Power Over Pain Portal fills that gap by providing a one-stop shop for resources and support for people who live with pain.

The Power over Pain Portal connects people who live with pain to a suite of resources that may meet their immediate needs, including pain education, evidence-informed pain management courses, and peer support. The Portal also facilitates continuous outcome monitoring to provide feedback to people who live with pain about their progress, promoting behaviour change and improved health decision making.

The Power Over Pain Portal is the result of a coast-to-coast Canadian collaboration of people living with pain, clinicians, researchers, and representatives of community organizations. The Portal is funded by Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program and the views expressed may not represent those of Health Canada.

The Portal includes pain education, virtual self-directed courses, peer support, and live workshops. The Portal also links you to one-on one counselling and other resources for mental health and substance use care.

Although some resources may address the same topics, we carefully selected resources that have different formats (articles, videos, podcast) and/or with different level of intensity (5 min reading vs. 8 weeks course) to suit as many people living with pain as possible. Users are free to choose the resources they want to engage with based on their preference, readiness, and self-identified needs.

Yes. The resources available on the Portal were created and/or selected by academics, pain clinicians and/or trusted pain advocacy organization. All resources on the Portal have also been reviewed by people who live with pain.

Yes. The Portal is designed to evolve over time as new evidence emerges from data obtained on the Portal, external research (e.g., new virtual interventions), and changes in policy. If you would like to get updates about the Portal, join our newsletter here.

You can share your feedback or suggestions for the Power Over Pain Portal here. Please do not include any identifying information. Also note that this form is not monitored in real time. If you or someone you care about is in crisis, we urge you to contact immediate support services.

For immediate support:        
Call or text 9-8-8 if you or someone you know is thinking about suicide. 
Call 911 if you are in immediate danger or in need of urgent medical help. 
Indigenous Peoples can also reach out to Hope for Wellness at 1-855-242-3310.

Go to the Resources Page to start navigating the resources. It’s that simple! You can navigate all resources but you may find it helpful to select one or a few topics of interest to narrow down your search results. You can also filter the resources by format and region!

Yes. You can attend one of our Portal Orientation Sessions (register for a session here).

No, an account is not required. If you are not ready or interested to make an account, you can still access most resources on the Portal. However, if you want to take full advantage of what the Portal has to offer, you should consider creating an account.

With an account, you’ll have access to all resources, including free pain self-management courses. You’ll also be able to complete regular self-assessments. These self-assessments are designed to rapidly track your progress and provide resource recommendations.

The self-assessment provides information about your pain experience and well-being. Doing regular self-assessments can help you keep track of how your pain experience and well-being changes over time. It also helps you choose resources that are right for you. If you don’t feel like you’re making progress, we recommend that you try out some of our other resources. Tracking your journey will help you find the path that works best for you.

Yes for sure! Print your self-assessments results and discuss them with your family doctor or pain specialist.

Absolutely! The Portal was designed to enhance the ability of healthcare providers to support people living with pain in a holistic manner that takes into account individual goals, needs, preferences and readiness to change.

We have created a toolkit for providers to make it easier to implement the Portal into their practice. You can access these here or contact us for more details at [email protected].

Absolutely! Learning how pain works and how one can better manage their pain can help you understand what your friend/family member is going through and how to support them.

We use certain kinds of technical information, such as log files. This is to provide pain management, mental health support and make improvements to the Portal. We also use analytics tools to collect statistics about visitors to the website.

If you want to learn more about what information we collect, you can read our privacy commitment here.

The more we know about what you’re going through, the more we’ll be able to offer you personalized support. Everyone’s pain experience is different. What works for your friend might not work for you. By sharing a little more information with us when creating an account, you help us paint a fuller picture of your unique situation. This allows us to support you better.

The information you share on the Portal belongs to you. It will be kept private and confidential. Your personal information will not be sold or traded to third parties. You can read more about this in our Privacy Commitment. The Portal is operated through the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (“OHRI” or “Operator” ), the research arm of The Ottawa Hospital (“TOH”).

Yes. You can delete your Power Over Pain Portal account at any time. This will result in the deletion of your personal data.

To delete your account, email us at [email protected]. When your account is deleted, we'll make sure that all electronic and hard copies of your information are destroyed. Everything will be irreversibly deleted from our system within 7 days.