September is International Pain Awareness Month, where we raise awareness around pain, pain management, and the great work that pain professionals are doing for people who have been severely injured and deal with chronic pain.
September is a time dedicated to understanding and improving chronic pain, which is often an invisible condition that affects one in five Canadians across the country. That's roughly eight million Canadians, ranging from children to older adults, whose quality of life can be severely impacted for months, even years, because of pain. 1
Chronic pain can occur when people are involved in a car accident or other incident resulting in soft tissue or other injuries. It can force people to give up the activities that they enjoy, which cause them to feel isolated. It takes a toll on their mental and physical health.
There is no single cure for chronic pain, but there are some coping strategies that can help.
Strategies for coping with chronic pain
- Get moving. Work with a physical or occupational therapist on appropriate exercises to gradually retrain your body.
- Participate in meaningful activities. Set aside a simple activity each day that calms or brings you joy.
- Engage in mindfulness. Meditation does not have to be fancy or complicated. To start, try paying attention to one sensory input at a time, such as hearing or vision.
- Practice good sleep habits. Establish regular bed and wake times but do not spend your entire day there.
- Treat related conditions. Cognitive behavioral therapy with licensed mental health professional helps decreases symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other mental and physical health concerns.
- Stay connected to your support system. While it's important to take time for yourself, having family and friends that care about you is important. Although you may want to be left alone during bouts of chronic pain, lean in to support from others.2
- Lighten your load. For example, instead of carrying a heavy load in one trip, divide it into lighter loads and make multiple trips.
Physical treatments to deal with pain
Physical treatments can be an important part of managing chronic pain. You may find that combining more than one treatment helps the most.
- Heat or cold. This can help with arthritis, sore muscles, and other aches.
- Hydrotherapy. It uses flowing water to relax muscles.
- Massage. This involves rubbing the soft tissues of the body. It eases tension and pain.
- Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). This treatment uses a gentle electric current applied to the skin for pain relief.
- Acupuncture. This is a form of traditional Chinese medicine. It uses very thin needles inserted into certain points of the body.
- Physiotherapy. This treatment uses stretches and exercises to reduce pain and help you move better.3
Proving chronic pain in a personal injury claim
There are challenges in successfully pursuing a chronic pain personal injury claim because most of the signs and symptoms are not visible to the naked eye or through medical procedures such as an X-ray. Managing chronic pain claims requires understanding what the client is dealing with and being able to arrange for proper treatment and assessments. Insurer assessment reports are often dismissive of chronic pain complaints and allege that all soft tissue injuries resolve without incident after three months. Knowing how to combat and refute such medical opinions is a key aspect of obtaining fair compensation for chronic pain sufferers.
Some procedures we employ to assist in your claim are as follows:
- Consultation with a well-respected medical professional and expert on chronic pain syndrome to evaluate, assess, explain, and testify to the validity of the condition.
- Arrange for treatment providers and/or a rehabilitation expert who can assess the injured person’s recovery process and needs. This provides a more objective means for calculating damages for such losses as lost future earnings, future care needs and pain and suffering.
- Obtain additional evidence where necessary, including demonstrative evidence, showing that the accident was of a type and force that would result in injuries that may progress to the development of a chronic pain syndrome.
If you or someone you know has been injured within the last two years and has been dealing with chronic pain since, contact our office to book a free consultation with one of our lawyers.
1Health Canada, Message from the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health on International Pain Awareness Month, para 1, https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/news/2023/09/message-from-the-minister-of-mental-health-and-addictions-and-associate-minister-of-health-on-international-pain-awareness-month.html
2Mayo Clinic Health System, Pathways through persistent pain: Tips for managing chronic pain, https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/8-tips-for-managing-chronic-pain
3My Health Alberta.ca Network, Learning About Managing Chronic Pain, para 11, https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Health/aftercareinformation/pages/conditions.aspx?hwid=zc2088
