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The federal Minister of Health is establishing a national task force to determine how to better prevent, treat and manage chronic pain, which affects one in five Canadians and is often treated with opioids.
Ginette Petitpas Taylor said in an interview Wednesday that the task force would provide information on the barriers that can prevent people with persistent pain from receiving the treatment they need.
"This is the first step in addressing the chronic pain problem in our country," she said, adding that the eight members would consult with governments and citizen's rights groups in the country and present a report. first report in June, followed by two more in the next few years.
Petitpas Taylor made the announcement in Toronto at the Canadian Pain Society's 40th annual scientific meeting, which has long advocated a national pain strategy, especially since the opioid crisis has exacerbated the stigma surrounding the prescription and use of badgesics.
She is committed to exploring the possibility of creating a national task force on pain after a discussion with patients, clinicians and researchers at a symposium held in Toronto last year, when she heard people with pain often feel that their condition was misunderstood and that the services were inconsistent.
"We have to recognize that Canada is a big country and we certainly know that the services provided by the provinces and territories are inconsistent. So I have to really understand what's available and what's going on there, "said Petitpas Taylor.
Supporters of pain patients presented a plan to the former Conservative government in 2012, but Petitpas Taylor said it was too early to say whether such a plan would be put in place.
Andrew Koster, who suffers from disabling low back and knee pain due to a form of arthritis called ankylosing spondylitis, said he feared that the work of the task force would lead nowhere if a change of government occurred in October.
"I am looking for signs from the government that it is taking this seriously and that it is not just something to declare during an election campaign," he said. "There must be a definitive action."
Koster, who will undergo a left knee surgery next month after an operation the year before, said he could no longer afford to pay $ 100 a week for acupuncture to relieve the pain daily after voluntarily reducing its opioid long-term consequences.
"Chronic pain sufferers are often underemployed or unemployed because they simply can not work and not all of us have extended health benefits and even sickness benefits are being depleted." he told Victoria.
He said it was crucial that the task force identify non-drug costs for patients and provinces for services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy and acupuncture, as part of any strategy proposed in this report. its final report.
Serena Patterson, a 60-year-old psychologist from Comox, BC, has been living with fibromyalgia-related pain for more than half of her life and has also developed migraine headaches that have prevented her from continuing to work. a teaching position in a college.
She said a three-year task force seemed excessive, not least because advocacy groups have enough information about gaps in health care and patients wait too long to consult specialists.
"I think we know that people are dying from an opioid epidemic and that patients with chronic pain are high on this list," Patterson said.
"I hope that these three years will be more constructive and no longer research. What needs to be built is a network of accessible multi-disciplinary team programs, both in rural and urban areas, that provide not only medical support, but also psychological and social support to people to participate fully in their lives and lives. in their community. "
Dr. Norman Buckley, Scientific Director of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Research and Treatment of Pain at McMaster University in Hamilton, said that hundreds of organizations, patients, clinicians and researchers, had come together to propose the federal government the strategy in 2012. There was no action at the time but he said that the epidemic of opioids made this inevitable.
– Follow @CamilleBains on Twitter.
Camille Bains, Canadian Press
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