Making Sense of Pain is a self-management program designed for people with pain who experience marginalization and face barriers to accessing care.
Audience Facilitators & Volunteers
Modules 5
Duration 9-10 Weeks
Certificate Upon Completion
Learning outcomes
By participating in this nine-to-ten-week 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 BC resources.
Feel less alone with their pain.
Modules
Frequently asked questions
What is the program structure and what topics are covered?
Each session is 2 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 1: Introductions and the biopsychosocial model of pain
Session 2: Pain science
Session 3: Stress & stress management
Session 4: Movement
Session 5: Sleep and mood
Session 6: Social support and communication
Session 7: Nutrition
Session 8: Grief & loss
Session 9: Self-talk & self-compassion
Session 10: Wrap-up (Optional)
What are the roles 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 BC will fund up to one facilitator for each of the first two cohorts)
Ensuring facilitators successfully pass Pain BC’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 BC for the first two cohorts)
Purchasing refreshments (or grocery gift cards for online programs) for each session (funding provided by Pain BC for the first two cohorts)
Organizing and facilitating weekly sessions (each session is 2 hours long)
Participating in the evaluation of the program
Communicating the program’s status at regular intervals to the Pain BC team
