Community Partnerships for Chronic Pain Management: An Equity, Diversity and Justice lens

Principal Applicant Nicole George
Supervisor/MentorDr. Sara Ahmed
Academic InstitutionMcGill University
Project TitleCommunity partnerships for chronic pain management: an equity, diversity and social justice lens
Funding Duration2022-2023
Award Value$10,000
Proposed Method/ScienceKnowledge to Action Model – Adapting knowledge to the local context, assess barriers, and select interventions
Project SummaryChronic pain impacts nearly 1 in 5 Canadian adults, with demonstrated inequities in the prevalence, severity, and access to care among populations that experience discrimination, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2S) communities. Linkages between communities and health systems support patient-centered care by integrating the strengths of communities to address unmet needs, such as social determinants of health. Driven by a local need from stakeholders, this project seeks to develop partnerships with diverse community organizations, assess barriers and facilitators to integration, and co-design an implementation plan to establish linkages between chronic pain management and community resources. This work will foster knowledge exchange among key stakeholders (clinicians, patients, decision makers and community leaders), to co-create strategies tailored to community needs that aim to reduce care fragmentations and health inequities related to chronic pain management.
About the ApplicantNicole George is a PhD student in Rehabilitation Science within the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, under the supervision of Dr. Sara Ahmed. For her doctoral thesis, Nicole is examining integrated, community-based approaches to pain management that address the biopsychosocial nature of pain for person-centered care. She is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) through a Frederick Banting and Charles Best Graduate Doctoral Award and is a Fellow with the Québec SPOR Support Unit.

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