BY LORNE ECKERSLEY
Advance staff
People who experience chronic pain can often feel helpless and alone, a spokesman for People in Pain Network said from his home in Courtenay on Friday.
Dick Divine, whose wife Heather founded PIP in 2011, said a Pain Self-Management Group has been established in Creston.
“People in Pain Network is the only Canadian not-for-profit organization providing peer-led pain self-management groups in Canada,” he said. It is presently serving British Columbia and Alberta, with a goal to expand across Canada.
With three newly trained local facilitators—all of whom have chronic pain themselves—one meeting has already been held at Creston Public Library, but new participants are welcome, Divine said.
PIP Network does not promise miracles or even cures, but provides information, support and a connection to a variety of professionals. It works with Pain BC and regional health authorities.
“There is no scripted format,” he said. “We do use the Canadian Pain Toolkit, which covers 12 areas of pain education, but peer facilitators help pain sufferers to know how to talk to their families, and how to access other resources. We aren’t going to do everything for them—they have to learn to manage themselves.”
After starting in Powell River, where it attracted 40 people on the first night, PIP Network has expanded into 20 communities across the province—all without the help of government funding.
“We try to find economic ways to provide service,” Divine said.
Divine is the only person on the PIP Network board of directors who does not suffer from chronic pain, but Heather’s 17-year history with pain motivates him.
“Pain is the least publicized, most common affliction in Canada,” he said. “We need to survive it to have quality of life.”
The local PIP Network meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month, 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the library, and people with chronic pain are welcome, as are their family members or caregivers. There is no charge.
For more information, call toll-free to 1-844-747-7246 or visit the web site at www.pipain.com. The web site provides information, resources and video.