This workshop introduces participants to the importance of data visualization and connecting research data to a story. Participants are presented with various types of visual data and offered methods to improve the use of the data with a goal of broadening the impact of the research behind it. Whether you are a Canadian Veteran or clinician looking to understand more about the different types of visual data, or a researcher looking for ways to present data that will lead to broader impact, this workshop will be for you.

This webinar focuses on the intersection of chronic pain and mental health in the Veteran population, and sheds light on the complex relationship between these two prevalent conditions and how they often coexist, presenting unique challenges to those who have served. We explore the impacts of chronic pain on mental health and well-being and vice versa, delving into the latest research, treatment strategies and the importance of a holistic approach to care.

We explore two alternative methods of care that contribute to chronic pain management: a discussion of the positive benefits that Mindfulness contributes to pain management by Dr. Gregory Hariton; Neil Pearson with Veteran partner, Dawn Herniman, explore evidence-based research surrounding the impact of yoga in pain management.

There has been much reported in media lately about the impact of psilocybin (mushrooms) and MDMA (ecstasy) for mental health and pain. The session will explore the history of the drugs and discuss existing evidence-based research on their recommended use.

In the first session of our Fall 2021 education series, we explored transgenerational chronic pain, which means the impact on children when one of their parents has chronic pain. This session began with the latest research into the topic being conducted by Dr. Melanie Noel at the University of Calgary. Dr. Noel is presently conducting a study focussed on military families. Following her presentation, we were pleased to welcome Dr. Helena Hawryluk and Jerris Popik from Wounded Warriors Canada to discuss their existing programs to build resilience in children and youth.

During our next session, we discussed military culture and the identity of military members. Dr. Jim Thompson from the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research (CIMVHR) and Tom Hoppe, Chair of the CPCoE Advisory Council for Veterans, shared their research and experience on the topic. The change in identity has an impact on individuals when they leave the military, especially as it relates to those with chronic pain. We then transitioned from identity to re-integration. Tom Carter, Dr. Elisabeth Saxton, and Eryn Weldon from CBI Health joined us to discuss how they reconnect Veterans with their families, hobbies, and lives. They were joined by a Veteran in their clinic, Doug, who shared his personal journey with pain.

The Veterans Affairs Canada Life After Service Studies (LASS) found that 40.8% of Veterans suffered from chronic pain. In this session, Dr. Jason Busse shared his analysis of the data collected. Veterans Affairs Canada funds 10 independent Operation Stress Injury (OSI) clinics. Saint Anne’s Hospital in Quebec is unique to Canada for having an interdisciplinary pain management centre and OSI clinic under the same roof and management team. With the overlap in conditions that Veterans face between chronic pain and mental health, this model allows health care providers to better engage with required specialists as part of providing care for Veterans. In this session, Josie Pierre, Manager of the pain and OSI clinic at Saint Anne’s Hospital, and her team shared their experiences in treating Veterans under this model of care.

In this session, Adria Fransson, a practitioner at the Michael G. DeGroote Pain Clinic in Hamilton, Ontario, shared insights from their pain program about the physiology of how pain impacts well-being. She was followed by Dr. Joy MacDermid, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Chair in Gender, Work, and Health, who discussed the importance of sex and gender in research and introduced her project on identifying differences in chronic pain treatment needs and responses based on sex and gender in Canadian Veterans.

In our final symposium, Dr. Friedhelm Sandbrink and Dr. Benjamin Kligler from the Veterans Health Administration returned to share their findings and the initial outcomes from their Whole Health Project. The second presentation featured Dr. Eleni Hapidou, from the Michael G. DeGroote Pain Clinic, who presented the results from her study highlighting the success experienced by Veterans with chronic pain once they had been enrolled in an interdisciplinary pain management program. Her study was published in the Canadian Journal of Pain in August, 2020.

Our third symposium involved the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) Dr. Diane Flynn, Dr. Patricia Poulin, from The Ottawa Hospital, and McGill University’s Regina Visca. The theme for this event centred around the Stepped Care Model, a personalized pain management program based on the individual patient’s needs and responses to different types of pain management therapies.

The second in our series of educational symposiums featured Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, MD, Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret’d) from United States Department of Defense (DOD) Uniformed Services University’s (USU) Defense & Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management (DVCIPM). Dr. Buckenmaier’s presentation focused on how new pain management strategies have been explored to address the needs of service members in the last two decades. This symposium also featured Dr. Brenda Lau, the Founder and Medical Director of CHANGEpain, an interdisciplinary pain clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia, who is leading a pilot project on virtual care for Veterans.

Our first virtual symposium focused on a patient-centred approach to pain management and featured two researchers from the United States Veterans Health Administration, Friedhelm Sandbrink, MD and Benjamin Kligler, MD, MPH. This symposium also included the Centre of Excellence’s Dr. Jason Busse who discussed his latest research on the effectiveness of cannabis in the management of chronic pain which will be published in the British Medical Journal in Summer 2021.