Federal Action on Opiods

The growing number of opioid-related overdoses and deaths is a national public health crisis. The Minister of Health has made addressing this crisis a top priority.

The Government of Canada is taking a leadership role by using all of its available tools. We are working with provinces, territories and other partners across the country to take a collaborative approach to the crisis. On November 18 and 19, 2016, the Minister of Health brought together health partners to commit to joint action. The Joint Statement of Action to Address the Opioid Crisis outlines the combined commitment of over 30 partner organizations to respond to this crisis. The statement was created as a result of the Opioid Conference and Summit.

First Nations Poverty in Canada

This research explores poverty among First Nations. It seeks to cover gaps in research surrounding this severe problem amongst First Nations and is critical to informing policy debates, analyses and changes in the future.

Poverty is a severe social problem among many First Nations. According to the 2001 Census, the average individual income of the total population was $29,769, but only $19,132 for an individual of Aboriginal ancestry, and a staggering $14,616 for an Aboriginal living on reserve (Mendelson, 2006). The poverty of First Nations has been the result of being stripped of their lands, their traditional livelihoods, and cultures, and having been placed on less valuable lands as reserves, as well as serious lack of educational opportunities (Neu & Therrien, 2003).

Opioid crisis coupled with doctor shortage leaves chronic pain patients desperate.

Tracy has suffered from chronic back and neck pain since she had a workplace injury 17 years ago.

Back then, in the early 2000s, before most people had even heard of fentanyl, the drug in time-release patches was a common way to treat pain. Tracy, whose last name CBC News has agreed to withhold because of the stigma she faces as an opioid user, was on prescription fentanyl for years before she asked her family doctor to wean her off, afraid of the harm the powerful drug could cause.

As a Matter of Fact: Poverty and Disability in Canada

Based on the Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) of 2006, people with disabilities make up 16.5% of the adult population 15 years and older in Canada, or nearly 4.2 million people. PALS is Statistics Canada’s ‘flagship’ survey on disability.

The overall poverty rate for Canadian adults was 10.5% in 2006, comprising 2.6 million people. The Conference Board of Canada recently found that Canada ranks 15th out of 17 countries in terms of poverty among working-age people and gave Canada a ‘D’ rating on that basis.[4] For people with disabilities the poverty rate was 14.4%, comprising nearly 600,000 people.

Chronic pain linked with poor mental health: Statistics Canada

Chronic pain linked with poor mental health: Statistics Canada
January 29, 2015

The relationship between chronic pain and poor psychological health has been well established. However a new Statistics Canada study, Chronic pain, activity restriction and flourishing mental health, suggests that both pain intensity as well as pain-related activity prevention play a direct role in the impact of chronic pain on mental health. In particular, the author sought to examine whether the experience of chronic pain contributes indirectly to mental illness by limiting day-to-day activities, thereby increasing psychological distress. Through a detailed analysis of data from the 2011/2012 Canadian Community Health Survey, the report found that individuals with chronic pain were less likely to have flourishing mental health than were people without chronic pain (69 percent versus 79 percent). Pain intensity and pain-related activity prevention were each independently associated with flourishing mental health, even when sociodemographic and health factors were taken into account.

Low back pain review highlights harm to patients and waste of health care resources

A collaboration of more than 30 leading experts in countries across the world, including Professor Nadine Foster, Keele University and Professor Martin Underwood, Warwick University, have reviewed the evidence for treatment of low back pain and are publishing their results in a series of three papers in the Lancet, the first of which was published Wednesday 21st March; you will be able to access country specific facts and statistics along with patient case studies.

This matters because lower back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide and yet a high proportion of patients are mistreated. The Lancet Low Back Pain Series highlights that significant health resources are being wasted to fund tests and treatments known to be ineffective and even harmful. It also suggests many of the mistakes of high-income countries are already well established in low- and middle-income countries. The global burden of disability due to low back pain has increased by more than 50% since 1990, and is due to increase even further in coming decades as a result of population growth and ageing.

Indigenous health services often hampered by legislative confusion

The health of Indigenous people in Canada is an embarrassment to Canada and our health care system.

The reasons are multifactorial and long standing, many of them powerfully captured in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Report. One contributing factor is lack of clear government accountability and historical arguments between provinces and the federal government over who is responsible for providing and paying for healthcare services for Indigenous peoples.

The federal government has made commitments to improve the care of Indigenous people and a few weeks ago created a new ministry focusing on Indigenous services. While details of this new portfolio are unclear and a Mandate Letter for the new Minister has not been publicly released Healthy Debate is taking a closer look at how Indigenous health care is currently delivered.

Finishing the job of ending poverty in South Asia

“I have a four-year-old son back in my village. I want to make a better life for him,” says Sharmin Akhtar, a 19-year-old employee in one of Dhaka’s many flourishing garment factories.

Like thousands of other poor women, Sharmin came down to Bangladesh’s capital from her village in the country’s north to seek a better job and create a more prosperous future for her family—leaving behind a life of crushing poverty.

Today, as we mark End Poverty Day 2018, it’s important to note that Sharmin’s heartening story is one of many in Bangladesh and the rest of South Asia, where economic growth has spurred a dramatic decline in extreme poverty in the last 25 years.

Reducing the global burden of musculoskeletal conditions.

Musculoskeletal conditions include more than 150 diagnoses that affect the locomotor system. These conditions are characterized by pain and reduced physical function, often leading to significant mental health decline, increased risk of developing other chronic health conditions and increased all-cause mortality.

Many musculoskeletal conditions share risk factors common to other chronic health conditions, such as obesity, poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle. Musculoskeletal conditions account for the greatest proportion of persistent pain across geographies and ages.

Back and neck pain, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and fractures are among the most disabling musculoskeletal conditions and pose major threats to healthy ageing by limiting physical and mental capacities and functional ability. Although the prevalence of major musculoskeletal conditions increases with age, they are not just conditions of older age.

Musculoskeletal Conditions

Musculoskeletal conditions are typically characterised by pain (often persistent) and limitations in mobility, dexterity and functional ability, reducing people’s ability to work and participate in social roles with associated impacts on mental wellbeing, and at a broader level impacts on the prosperity of communities.

The most common and disabling musculoskeletal conditions are osteoarthritis, back and neck pain, fractures associated with bone fragility, injuries and systemic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Canadian Pain Task Force

The Government of Canada recognizes the impacts and challenges faced by Canadians who live with chronic pain. Approximately one in five Canadians live with chronic pain and this can have significant impacts on an individual’s physical and mental health, often preventing them from undertaking everyday activities. People with chronic pain face challenges related to stigma and access to evidence-based health services to treat and manage their pain. With this in mind, Health Canada has established the Canadian Pain Task Force. The Task Force will provide advice to Health Canada regarding evidence and best practices for the prevention and management of chronic pain.

2010 Outstanding Paper: Medical and Interventional Science

Current clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for the treatment of acute low back pain (AM-LBP) have been derived from independent systematic reviews carried out on an international scale. Their recommendations have been shown to be highly consistent and based on sound scientific evidence rather than on consensus.

The knowledge translation of these guidelines to primary health-care providers has, to date, been unimpressive.

Multiple studies have demonstrated a poor correlation between what primary health-care providers think is an effective treatment and what has actually been shown to be an effective
treatment. Without widespread implementation of guideline-recommended treatments, the degree to which otherwise extensive scientific research (which the guidelines are based on) is actually helping this patient population remains to be determined.