A growing non-profit organization dedicated to helping people experiencing chronic pain and their families live better lives is continuing to expand its reach across the North Shore and beyond.
Heather Divine, a former North Vancouver resident who's currently based in Courtenay, has experienced chronic pain since 1990. Over the last 25 years she has worked in a variety of capacities to help others who are similarly affected, for example, with various pain associations. Based on her experiences, Divine launched the People in Pain Network in 2011 and is continuing to grow the organization, offering an ever-expanding number of peer-led pain self management support groups.
"Our mission statement is reflected in our meeting strategy and it's to bring education about self management and community resources into the meeting to enhance (participants') ability to self-manage and reach out to health-care providers and therapists that are in their own community. So it strengthens (participants') knowledge about what's available to them as well as then those health-care providers and therapists are aware of the people who are living with pain. It's a wonderful way to exchange information and to let people grow in their own self management plans and skills," says, Divine, CEO.
So far more than 20 network groups exist in B.C., with three on the North Shore. An additional eight groups are being launched across the province in the next two months.
Apart from filling a need, Divine credits the recent increase in the number of support groups having been made possible through her work with the General Practice Services Committee, a joint initiative of the provincial Ministry of Health and Doctors of B.C. A couple of years ago, Divine was asked to get involved with the committee's Practice Support Program and help design content to train trainers from across the province who would go back to their respective communities and share what they had learned, aiding in the development of painmanagement strategies. "An important part of that, they also realize, is that peer support group. So they are now contacting us to come to their communities and set up the peer groups to go with their painmanagement strategies. So we are setting up almost two groups every three months now across B.C. We'll have probably over 30 by the fall of 2015," says Divine.
There is also one group running in Alberta with four more in the development stages. Divine hopes to see the network continue to expand across the country.
All of the self management support groups are led by trained leaders and are intended to offer more than just support.
"It's a way for people to realize that they can make room to build a new normal and that's what's really exciting. They can get through their losses and the changes in their life and just kind of move it to the side a little bit and then have the help and the support to build a new normal so that they can add meaning and purpose and joy and laughter back into their lives. That's the focus that we're taking in training our leaders so that that comes right down to the group members. So it's really way more than just talking about their pain. It's about education, and the resources and skills to do this new normal and to have that support to do it," says Divine.
The three groups on the North Shore are currently accepting new members and include: the North Shore Women's Self Management Support Group, which meets the second Wednesday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon at John Braithwaite Community Centre; the Lynn Valley Self Management Support Group, which meets the first Thursday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon at John Braithwaite; and the Mollie Nye Self Management Support Group, which meets the third Wednesday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m. at Mollie Nye House. Info: 1-844-747-7246, [email protected] or pipain.com.
