Resources

Dr. Marwa Azab helps us understand the nature of pain, and how pain might make us stronger. 

This podcast covers all aspects of chronic pain by presenting evidence-based information that provides better insight into chronic pain. Recent Government of Canada research found that Veterans are twice as likely to suffer from chronic pain compared to others in the Canadian population. We aim to investigate how this impacts Veterans, and their families. We explore topics such cannabis and psychedelics, and do they help treat chronic pain? We also investigate back surgery, military identity and what military and professional athletes have in common with identity. The evidence-based information on the show will help Veterans, clinicians, researchers, and anyone suffering from chronic pain. It is a 360-degree approach to education on chronic pain.

Sadness and “feeling down” are a natural part of life—but feeling like this all of the time is not. Having a low mood may be accompanied by feelings of hopelessness, low energy levels, and a lack of interest in doing things that you used to enjoy. Check out this resource for additional information and support for low mood. 

Do you need a reason to walk? In this video Doctor Andrea Furlan will give you 15 reasons to go for a walk outdoors. She will talk about the importance of walking and the benefits of doing it outdoors. 
 

In pain management, opioids are medications that work by blocking pain signals in your brain and spinal cord.  Opioids do not cure chronic pain and they come with some serious risks. Opioids should not be relied on as an important treatment for chronic pain as there is not a lot of scientific literature that supports the use of opioids for chronic pain. It is important to work with your health care provider to ensure you are using your opioids safely and effectively. Visit this webpage developped by TAPMI to learn more about opioids including how to start a trial, manage your opioids, or decrease your usage.

Living with pain doesn't mean we have to live without a satisfying and fulfilling sex life. We can have one. When we're willing to try new approaches, define new ways of finding enjoyment and communicate honestly about worries or new needs, we'll find it's not as hard as we thought to find a way back to pleasure, fun, and fulfillment. 

With this module from LivePlanBe+, learn how does chronic pain affect sex and intimacy, how to communicate while in pain, and what is assertive communication and why is it important.

This resource provides:

Drop in, therapist-led group support

Mutual strength, support, and solutions for behaviour change

Support from others like you

This resource can:

Offer motivation and accountability to make behavioural changes

Provide actionable insights and tips to help you make and sustain progress toward your goals

Pain scientists starting to think differently about persistent (chronic) pain and its causes, are they're making exciting discoveries - like how you think about your pain can change the way it feels. Here Professor Lorimer Moseley explains how pain works and explains new approaches to help reduce your pain.

Sleep can improve our ability to think, learn, and remember things. It supports our immune system and appetite. Research suggests that good sleep helps us with our daily activities at home and work, making us more efficient and productive.

For many of us with chronic pain, getting a good night’s sleep can be a challenge. We may find it difficult to fall asleep or we may wake up often through the night. Even if we get the right amount of sleep, we can still feel tired in the morning if our sleep quality is poor.

Have you ever been so passionate about something or someone that nothing else seemed to matter? You felt as if you could take on the world... your energy level was high... and nothing could get you down?

That’s what “staying connected” is about. And "staying connected" is a powerful way to fuel your spirit and keep you happy, healthy, and energized. Check out this resource for tips and strategies on taking control of your mood. 

Gentle Movement @ Home is based on Pain BC’s Gentle Movement and Relaxation program, a training course for providers that was developed by physiotherapist Neil Pearson, one of Canada’s leading experts on movement and chronic pain. Sessions are led by physiotherapists and other therapeutic movement professionals and are designed to help people with persistent pain learn to feel safe to move again. Topics include breath awareness and regulation, body tension regulation, and movement and relaxation techniques in both seated and standing positions. Each video is approximately 50-65 minutes in duration.

This is a podcast series was created by the CAPSA (Community Addictions Peer Support Association) to talk about Substance Use Health - something that can be hard for many of us. There will be difficult questions about substance use that often don’t’ have easy answers.  Our aim is not to be confrontational, but also not to shy away from controversial ideas. We thank you for being open to hearing them.

Fadel Zeidan explains the psychological and neural processes that mediate the relationship between self-regulatory practices and health, and the specific brain mechanisms involved in mindfulness meditation-based pain relief.

Gain control over your life and participate in the things that are important to you. This course provides you with tools to be an active participant in your pain management. 

* Power Over Pain Portal account is required.

In 1995, the British Medical Journal published a report about a builder who accidentally jumped onto a nail, which pierced straight through his steel-toed boot. He was in such agonizing pain that any movement was unbearable. But when the doctors took off his boot, they discovered that the nail had never touched his foot at all. What’s going on? Joshua W. Pate investigates the experience of pain. Lesson by Joshua W. Pate, directed by Artrake Studio.

Sleepwell recommends CBTi (cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia) because it has excellent evidence that it works. The challenge for many is getting access to CBTi. This is where Sleepwell comes in.

We include a highly scrutinized short list of recommended CBTi resources to help get you started without delay. Our recommendations take a self-help approach to CBTi rather than requiring that a therapist be involved, which is also a great option but not available to most people.

Watch this short video explain

• What anxiety is
• Why we experience anxiety
• How anxiety affects your body and mind 

This page will provide you with tools and resources to help you with anxiety. 

We are a team of Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists in the Brain and Spinal Cord Rehab Program at Toronto Rehab, University Health Network. We are passionate professionals who want to share some of our self-management resources with the world. If you have pain, mobility issues, or simply wish to explore being kinder to yourself through gentle movement and relaxation, then this channel is for you!

Sleep On It mission is to promote the importance of sleep to maintain good health, to demystify sleep difficulties, and to offer solutions to patients. The website Sleep On it was created by the Canadian Sleep and Circadian Network, the Canadian Sleep Society, Fondation Sommeil and Wake-up Narcolepsy Canada through their bilingual Canadian campaign to promote the importance of sleep to maintain good health.

Kwo Wei David Ho, MD, PhD is a pain medicine fellow in the Division of Pain Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. During the May 2020 Pain Science Lecture Series, he speaks on a "Mindfulness and Pain." Learn what is mindfulness, why mindfulness and how to cultivate mindfulness.

People who live with pain commonly report experiencing issues with sleep and, conversely, poor sleep can make it more difficult to manage pain. This workshop will explore the complex relationship between sleep and pain, with a focus on practical considerations and stategies for the management of sleep disturbance among people who live with pain. The goal is to provide insights on how to improve the management of pain by optimizing sleep.

SKILLS AND STRATEGIES FOR LIVING WITH PAIN

Learn about the everyday things we can do to improve our well-being. This program will help develop practical tools and strategies to cope with pain. 

LEARN AT YOUR OWN PACE

Choose what topics to focus on, or use the program's customized, self-paced learning plan.

MAKE SMALL CHANGES

Apply your learning by making small, manageable changes to daily habits. The program makes it easier to work on these small changes.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE WITH CONFIDENCE

Discover what works best and develop strategies to take back control of life. LivePlanBe+ will be beside you every step of the way.

Sleeping is as necessary to survival as breathing, eating, and drinking. People can cope without sleep for a short period of time, however long-term sleep deprivation can have many negative consequences on the brain and body.

We are people with persistent pain helping other people with persistent pain improve the quality of their lives by providing them with a greater understanding of the pain they are feeling, 

• how to successfully manage their pain through self-management
• education on why we feel pain and how our pain designed to assist us
• break the cycle of isolation and hopelessness so often associated with persistent pain.
• a safe place to talk to about their pain with others who understand.

In this video Doctor Andrea Furlan will demonstrate how to dance bolero, which is a slow-tempo music style originated from Spain. The dance has 4 groups of 8 steps each. You can print the 32 steps from this document: https://bit.ly/DanceBolero

The Benefits Finder is a tool that can help you find Benefits and Services that you may be eligible to receive. It asks a few questions and uses your answers to search. It does not collect or track your information. The more questions you answer, the more customized and accurate your results will be.

In this video, Sheena, a yoga teacher who suffers from fibromyalgia, shares her daily meditation for pain relief. 

Provided by Wellness Together Canada, this resource provides:

A seven step action plan to calm down

Tips to ground yourself in your surroundings

Help shifting focus away from negative feelings

This resource can help you:

Relax in stressful situations

Develop an action plan for any setting

Be mindful about your surroundings

There have been some amazing pain discoveries over the last 20 years and they've opened up new opportunities for people in pain. This talk will explain that when pain persists, your body learns pain and becomes over protected, but you can use proven strategies to slowly retrain your pain system to be less protective. To begin, you need to rethink what pain actually is, what factors contribute to your pain and how you can tailor make your own retraining programme.

Brought to you by Wellness Together Canada

These strategies will help you gain a better understanding of:

• How your drinking or drug use could potentially get out of control
• How you could be affected by cravings for alcohol or drugs

They will also give you positive coping skills that will teach you:

• How to manage any cravings you may be experiencing
• How to stay calm when life makes you anxious or upset

For each strategy, there is a video for you to watch and listen to, and an action plan you can download and print out.

When living with chronic pain it can be easy to stop participating in activity and exercise. Inactivity causes us to gradually lose strength and flexibility. We then find ourselves out of the habit of exercising, which ultimately causes pain levels to increase.

In this module, from Pain U Online, you will learn about:

• How physical activity can help with pain management
• How to identify what type of physical activity to focus on – utilizing the goal-setting and self-management tools

PAIN+ CPN articles have been rated, by both health care professionals and patients living with chronic pain, to determine clinical relevance and general interest. For Patients and their Caregivers: Are you interested in the evidence behind treatments for pain? Check out the Evidence Summary section where the latest in pain research is translated into easy-to-understand short abstracts.
 

Healthy eating and dietary changes may be one component of your chronic pain self-management plan.

Research shows that healthy nutrition has a positive effect on our health. What we eat influences our health. In Canada, dietary risks are one of the three leading risk factors for disease burden. To date, there are no scientifically proven “Chronic Pain Diets”, however healthy eating can benefit people with chronic pain in many ways. Visit this webpage by TAPMI to learn more about healthy eating.

Smiling Mind is a unique tool developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life. We suggest 10 minutes a day. What are you waiting for?

Smiling Mind is Australia’s leading digital-led, prevention focused mental health not-for-profit. Smiling Mind has been helping minds thrive for over 10 years and are the innovators behind Australia’s most trusted mental wellbeing app. Our evidence-based tools support people to learn the skills to maintain their mental health in fun and interactive ways.

Provided by Wellness Together Canada:

This short video explains how cravings change over time, including:

What to expect from your cravings

How cravings change over time

This tool can help you:

Manage cravings

Remember that cravings aren't forever

 Learn about the basic physiology of how humans experience pain, and the mechanics of the medicines we've invented to block or circumvent that discomfort. Lesson by George Zaidan, animated by Augenblick Studios.

Brought to you by Wellness Together Canada and CAPSA, this peer-facilitated group offers a few simple practices and tools designed to help those who are questioning their relationship with substances by:

Sharing experiences of successes and struggles

Creating a safe, stigma-free environment

Offering easy access to multiple sessions each week

In this module, from Pain U Online, you will learn about: 

• How over activity and inactivity can increase pain signals
• How pacing can positively impact pain
• How to identify what pacing looks like for you
• Calculations to better manage activity levels
• How to decide on an increase in activity schedule

Indigenous children and families are often misunderstood and mistreated by health care professionals – an issue at the heart of the Aboriginal Children’s Hurt & Healing (ACHH) Initiative. The ACHH Initiative is working with communities and clinicians to bridge the gap in our understanding of Indigenous children’s pain and hurt. Our team is a broad partnership, consisting of Indigenous community leaders, clinicians, Elders, youth, researchers from Dalhousie University, IWK Health and many more. Through research and strong community and clinician partnerships we are working to bridge the gap in our understanding of Indigenous children’s pain and hurt and ultimately, improve healthcare experiences.

Persistent pain can contribute to life stressors, and chronic stress can worsen the pain experience. The good news is that anything that helps you manage stress can also help your pain, and anything to help with pain can also help you cope with stress.

Visit this webpage by TAPMI to learn: What stress is and why people experience stress, how stress and pain are related, how to identify your stress triggers and warning signs, and how to cope with stress in healthy ways.

A Proven Path to Well-Being. Powered by Science. With a combination of podcast-style lessons and both seated and active meditations, you’ll learn what the science says about the brain while developing skills to tap into these learnings for a healthier, happier you.

TAPMI has developed these learning modules to help you:

• Become knowledgeable about chronic pain 
• Focus on goals that are important to you
• Minimize stress
• Identify warning signs and avoid flare ups
• Improve overall quality of life
• Stay active to improve your pain levels
• Pace your activities to reduce your risk of flare up
• Practice daily relaxation techniques
• Learn how to communicate with family, friends, and care providers
• Improve your sleep so you can cope better with your pain

Have you ever wished you could pick the brain of your local pain expert, if you had one, or find the right word or phrase that can shift the mindset of someone living with persistent pain that can improve their function and quality of life? Pain Talk is a podcast dedicated to bringing together experts who study and support individuals living with pain. It is a platform where scientists, health care providers and individuals living with pain can talk pain—pain and simple.

Wellness Together Canada offers free live counselling 24 hours a day. To speak to someone now, call 1-866-585-0445. We can connect you to a counsellor who will listen non-judgmentally to whatever's on your mind or help you better understand all the support options available at no cost to you. Whatever you’re going through, we’re here to listen. 

In this module you will find:

• neck stretches
• low back exercises
• relaxation stretches
• cardio exercises
• strength exercises
• balance exercises

Disclaimer: While great care has been taken to ensure that these exercises and advice are prepared in a way that is safe and practical for most people, none of these exercises should be considered specific medical advice.

The Hope for Wellness Helpline is available to all Indigenous people across Canada. Experienced and culturally competent counsellors are reachable by telephone and online ‘chat’ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Both telephone and online chat services are available in English and French. Telephone support is also available upon request in:

• Cree;
• Ojibway (Anishinaabemowin);
• Inuktitut.

Understanding that stress is a natural response that does not automatically mean harm (much like some pain) will help us face stressful events with a more positive approach. This awareness is important for someone living with pain, since a nervous system that routinely copes with pain needs all the resilience possible. Check out this module from LivePlanBe+ to learn more.

By completing this course, you will:

· Explore what your personal values are and what REALLY matters to you.

· Learn tools that will let you be less controlled by chronic pain and the suffering that often comes with it.

· Commit to living a life that is based on your own person values.

· Learn about the role of sleep, communication and relationships, and medications in chronic pain management.

For years people with conditions such as fibromyalgia, endometriosis, chronic fatigue or bad back pain – to name just a few – have been told the pain is all in their head. With no obvious physical symptoms, nociplastic pain can be difficult to diagnose but its effects are very, very real. Research suggests that the immune system plays a role in nociplastic pain, giving people 'feel bad' symptoms including fatigue, anxiety and nausea.

Tune in to Pain BC's Pain Waves podcast to hear leading chronic pain experts and people in pain discuss the latest pain management research, stories, tools, and trends. Episodes are released once per month and can be accessed through iTunes and Spreaker. Pain BC is a registered health charity that has been leading efforts to improve the lives of people in pain through empowerment, care, education and innovation. Learn more at painbc.ca.

Free mental health and substance use support for you and those around you. From educational resources and e-courses to peer support and counselling, get the support that works best for your needs – all at no cost.

No wait times. No referral. No health card required.

This video reviews the importance of remaining active while living with pain from people living with pain. 

eLearning course on using cannabis to treat chronic pain! This course has been developed with a group of medical professionals to support people just like you. Topics covered includes:

• Choosing Your Product
• Cannabis and Your Body 
• Using Medicinal Cannabis
• Your Medicinal Cannabis Supply
• Activities of Daily Living
• Conversations 
• History

The development of this course would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of the clinical and research team at the Michael G. DeGroote Pain Clinic with pain clinic partners across Canada.

When we're feeling unwell, food might be the last thing on our minds. It's important for us to follow trusted and credible nutrition advice provided by guidelines such as Canada's Food Guide. Check out this module from LivePlanBe+ to learn more about nutrition.

It’s common in our culture to use substances for fun, relaxation, and connection. These substances aren’t always dangerous in moderation. But over time, or with excessive use, they can lead to harm. Check out this resource to:

• Find resources for managing substance use 
• Learn the signs of substance use and addiction-related problems
• Make steps towards wellness 
• Supporting someone struggling with substance use