New online portal helping people deal with chronic pain
Chronic pain is considered one of the leading causes of disability in this country.
Pair that with long waitlists for specialized pain care and you have millions of people eager for help.
Now a new online portal, which includes a Manitoba-made course proven to help get people engaged in pain management right away, is available.
According to Health Canada, one in five Canadians live with chronic pain, which is pain lasting longer than three months. On top of that, people are waiting up to three years to see a pain specialist says clinical psychologist Dr. Renée El-Gabalawy.
"Not only are people suffering but access to care is quite limited," she said.
It's why the Winnipeg-based clinical psychologist and her colleague Dr. Brigitte Sabourin developed an online self-directed program called 'IMPACT.' The course teaches people about a newer, evidence-based approach called acceptance and commitment therapy or ACT for short.
"When they learn these new ways of relating to these experiences they become, in a way, freer so that they can really focus their energy on living a life that matters to them and doing those things that really make life worth living, " said Sabourin, who is an assistant professor in the department of clinical health psychology at the University of Manitoba and a clinical health psychologist.
El-Gabalawy told CTV News early research found people liked the online format and the content enhanced pain functioning and quality of life. She added the more you put in, the more you get out.
"People are waiting to see specialists and that is a piece of the puzzle. But in order to enhance your quality of life and reduce that impact of pain you really need to be engaging in these self-management strategies that really optimize your health."
The two say the IMPACT course isn't meant to replace specialized care, but to get people started on self-management while they wait.
It is also a part of the new national Power Over Pain Portal, a pain-management tool Canadians living with pain don't have to wait for or pay for.
"It's a new initiative that hopefully will help, potentially help millions of Canadians throughout all of Canada to really engage in those kinds of behaviours that are helpful," said Sabourin.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.