‍Pain Canada welcomes the final report by the Canadian Pain Task Force, An Action Plan for Pain in Canada, released to the public May 5, 2021 by Health Canada. The report lays out numerous recommendations to improve outcomes for the nearly eight million Canadians living with chronic pain and calls for national action to reduce pain’s impact on individuals, families, communities, and society.

Pain Canada joins leading pain and pain-related organizations, institutions, and advocates across the country to support the recommendations in An Action Plan for Pain in Canada and to call for their implementation.

The report makes dozens of targeted recommendations in support of its calls for:

1.     National leadership to make pain a public health priority.

2.     Equitable access to timely, evidence-based, and person-centred pain care and supports for all Canadians, no matter where they live.

3.     Improved education for health professionals, the public, and people with pain in order to improve pain management and reduce stigma.

4.     Further investments in research on pain and pain treatments and better support for translating new knowledge into real world impact.

5.     Improved data collection to effectively monitor pain and its impacts.

6.     Equitable access to care and support for communities disproportionately impacted by pain, including Indigenous peoples, racialized communities, LGBTQ2S+ communities, people who use drugs, people with mental illness, people with disabilities, workers, children and youth, women, people who are incarcerated, and veterans.

Read the full report here.

The Canadian Pain Task Force was formed by the Government of Canada in April 2019to assess the current state of pain in Canada and to recommend an improved approach to addressing pain in our country. An Action Plan for Pain in Canada is the third and final report from the Canadian Pain Task Force. Read its previous two reports here.