Making Sense of Pain is a self-management program designed for people with pain who experience marginalization and face barriers to accessing care.
The Making Sense of Pain program is a group program led by a trained facilitator, that is conducted over a 9-10 week period. Facilitators provide participants with opportunities to learn about pain, the various factors that can cause or make pain worse, and simple strategies that can help participants better manage pain in everyday life. Attendance at all sessions is encouraged, but not required. Participants may also drop in. Accessibility is a key component of Making Sense of Pain: food/drinks are provided and travel and childcare subsidies, along with ASL interpretation, are available by request.
Pain Canada would like to partner with interested health authorities, non-profit organizations, Indigenous communities, addictions services, or pain support groups to hold these class series in locations where there is an established need. If you are interested in offering this program in your area, please read below for more detail on becoming a site.
Learning outcomes
By participating in this program, we intend for participants to:
- Learn about pain and its effects on emotional, social, physical and spiritual health.
- Increase knowledge about pain science including how the brain and body respond before, during, and after painful events.
- Increase knowledge of skills and strategies used to help manage pain.
- Increase knowledge of skills and strategies used to accept and understand their pain.
- Find useful community resources, including Pain Canada resources.
- Feel less alone with their pain.
Program structure and topics
Each session is two hours long with 1.5 hours dedicated to group work, and 30 minutes for social time. The Making Sense of Pain curriculum is designed to be flexible, and we encourage facilitators to adapt the content to the needs of their group.
Topics (can be presented in any order):
- Session one: Introductions and the biopsychosocial model of pain
- Session two: Pain science
- Session three: Stress & stress management
- Session four: Movement
- Session five: Sleep and mood
- Session six: Social support and communication
- Session seven: Nutrition
- Session eight: Grief & loss
- Session nine: Self-talk & self-compassion
- Session 10: Wrap-up (Optional)
Role of the site
The site will commit to offering at least three Making Sense of Pain program cohorts. The second cohort must begin within one year of the end date of the first cohort, and the third cohort must begin within one year of the end date of the second cohort. The site will be responsible for:
- Providing a comfortable meeting space for the group (if in person)
- Recruiting facilitators (Pain Canada will fund up to one facilitator for each of the first two cohorts)
- Ensuring facilitators successfully pass Pain Canada’s online facilitator training course
- Recruiting participants and identifying those who need accessibility subsidies (e.g. transit passes, gas cards, taxi vouchers, reimbursement for childcare) to attend sessions
- Disbursing and maintaining records of accessibility subsidies (funding provided by Pain Canada for the first two cohorts)
- Purchasing refreshments (or grocery gift cards for online programs) for each session (funding provided by Pain Canada for the first two cohorts)
- Organizing and facilitating weekly sessions (each session is two hours long)
- Participating in the evaluation of the program
- Communicating the program’s status at regular intervals to the Pain Canada team
Role of Pain Canada
Pain Canada will be responsible for providing the site with the following resources:
- The program curriculum
- Training for facilitators
- Promotional material used to recruit participants to the group
- Evaluation tools and processes
- Maintaining an online Facilitator Dashboard to provide easy access to resources for facilitators
- Facilitating quarterly MSOP Facilitator Community of Practice meetings
Full reimbursement of approved expenditures for the first two cohorts of the program as follows:
- Up to $1,000 for printing and delivery costs,
- Up to $1,200 to cover wages for the facilitator to successfully pass the 10-12 hour online facilitator training course,
- Up to $3,100 to cover facilitator wages to deliver the program (up to one hour of preparation time per session, two hours of delivery time per session, and up to one hour for participation in program evaluation),
- Up to $1,000 for refreshments for in-person program participants or gift cards for online program participants,
- Up to $300 for accessibility subsidies for participants to assist with costs such as transportation and childcare for those who would not otherwise be able to attend sessions.
- Reimbursement of up to $500 in approved expenditures for the next three cohorts offered by a site
Background and training requirements for facilitators
Facilitators for the Making Sense of Pain program can be from a wide variety of clinical health care backgrounds such as nursing, social work, psychology, counselling, occupational therapy, mental health, and addiction.
Additionally, it is desirable for facilitators to:
- Be experienced in providing trauma and violence informed care
- Have experience with group facilitation
- Possess a deep understanding of the needs, challenges and strengths of the target patient population
- Have an interest in chronic pain
Pain Canada will provide training in the program curriculum and provide resources to help facilitators understand basic assessment and treatment approaches to chronic pain.
Additional support available for Indigenous sites
Sites that serve Indigenous communities are eligible for up to $10,000 in additional funding to culturally tailor their program.
Why you should take this program
Program certification
Course outline
Have a question about a Pain Canada course?
Visit learner supportThis program is supported by Health Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of Health Canada.