Navigating Chronic Pain in the Therapy Room: A Critique of the Current Medical Landscape in Canada that Fails Those Living with Chronic Pain
Navigating Chronic Pain in the Therapy Room: A Critique of the Current Medical Landscape in Canada that Fails Those Living with Chronic Pain
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Issue Date
2024-05-15
Authors
Folk, Julia
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Abstract
Chronic pain affects one in five Canadians personally. With the government of Canada recognizing the need to shift chronic pain management toward an integrated approach, this capstone suggests that therapists should take a forefront role in chronic pain management to help those millions of people affected. This capstone is designed as a literature review to explore what chronic pain exactly is, how it looks, and who it affects specifically in Canada. It is then designed to review the current state of healthcare in Canada from perspectives of the public, and of physicians and professionals working within it. The research focuses on chronic pain management in Canada from a biopsychosocial lens and seeks to give power to each of these perspectives. The major finding of this capstone is that Canada’s physicians and other medical professionals are not only under equipped to provide adequate chronic pain treatment by virtue of their professional expectations, but that their professional roles and education may actually be rooted in colonial views that may perpetuate harm to chronic pain experiencers. I conclude that the education and competence of counselling therapists make them well suited additional supports for chronic pain experiencers, and that this may benefit individuals and lower the burden on our healthcare system equally. In light of this conclusion, this capstone proposes guidelines to help counselling therapists navigate conversations about chronic pain with their clients and with other helpful professionals, so that they may best serve clients in a wholistic way. It also makes suggestions for future research and advocacy for publicly funded psychotherapy.
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Keywords
chronic pain , Canadian healthcare , counsellor scope of practice
License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States , openAccess