Posted January 21, 2023 – UPDATED MARCH 16, 2023
Chronic pain is a common public health problem in young people. Many (one in five) Canadian youth experience chronic pain, and suffer poor physical, academic, social, an developmental effects, and increased mental health challenges. Despite this, current services and supports for young people with chronic pain mostly use a “one-size-fits all” method that mainly focus on the physical aspects of pain relief. Youth themselves have shared that their experiences with chronic pain are not understood from a whole person point of view and that their stories of living with chronic pain are not being heard.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had wider impacts on health services for youth with chronic pain and these wider impacts on the health system and patients are poorly understood. This lack of understanding results in health services that do not meet the needs of these young people.
The goal of this national study is to expand patient-centered care for young people with chronic pain, which means providing care that is respectful of, and responds to individual patient choices and needs. This study involves partnerships from across Canada, including Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP) and Children’s Healthcare Canada. Canadian youth experiencing chronic pain and key stakeholders (e.g., parents, clinicians, counselors) will be invited to take part in the study. Multiple data collection methods (e.g., individual and focus group interviews, arts-based methods) will be used, guided by principles of equity, collaboration and partnership. This study will help to shift our understanding of YCP as it creates space for youth-voice to advocate for their priorities in relation to care and how best to approach key stakeholders with their needs, with the ultimate aim to advance patient centred care for young people with chronic pain.
Purpose:
The purpose of this 4-year qualitative, arts-based, patient oriented national study is to advance patient-centred care for young people with chronic pain.
Aims:
The aims are to:
- Detail the experiences of young people with chronic pain including their needs, priorities for care, and preferred outcomes.
- Co-design arts-based knowledge translation (KT) products to advance key stakeholders’ understanding of the experiences of young people with chronic pain.
- Evaluate the KT products and engage key stakeholders in recommendations on the use of arts-based KT products to advance patient-centered care (PCC) for young people with chronic pain.
If you are interested in participating in this study please contact ingauge@umanitoba.ca