Health Matters - Apple Magazine Health Matters Summer 2018 | Page 2
CALGARY AND AREA
Your
Health Matters
Health Matters is published by Calgary and area Primary
Care Networks (PCNs) to give you information about the
programs, services and health teams available to you
through your family doctor.
Founded more than 10 years ago, PCNs work with teams
of other healthcare professionals, as well as offer programs
such as Prescription to Get Active and Find-a-Doctor.
Health Matters, Summer 2018 Issue publication team:
Keith Bradford, Terry Bullick, Sarah Gage, Jessica Hone,
Dr. Christine Luelo, Colleen Seto, Brett Tiesmaki,
Chrissie Worth, Shelly Wright
Contributors:
Jacqueline Louie, Jimi Scherer, Colleen Seto,
George Webber
Cover photo ©istock.com
We appreciate your feedback and article suggestions.
Contact our editorial team at [email protected].
Living well
with pain
WRITTEN BY COLLEEN SETO
We’ve all felt pain and we’ve all felt the relief of
its passing. But for people living with chronic
pain relief is often brief, if at all.
In broad terms, pain is an unpleasant sensation
in your body that makes you want to stop or
change your behaviour. In the case of chronic
pain, the jabs, throbbing and spasms can
persist even after the initial injury heals. In
some cases, the cause may not be known. The
experience of pain is different for everyone,
making it difficult to diagnose and treat.
Chronic pain: a lifelong condition
“Chronic pain affects one in five Canadians,”
says Dr. June Bergman, medical lead for the
extended health team at Calgary Foothills
Primary Care Network (PCN). “We now
know that it is a disease more of the nervous
system than of a specific repairable problem.
Chronic pain is a disease and can require
lifelong management. This is a different way of
thinking. There is not a simple solution or a pill
that will fix it.”
To help people living with ongoing pain,
Calgary-area PCNs offer pain-management
support through a variety of programs
and services. They’ve adopted a team
approach, drawing on an array of healthcare
professionals to tackle different concerns
about pain.
To find your PCN, visit mypcn.ca
TWO
› Bow Valley Primary Care Network
› Calgary West Central Primary Care Network
› Calgary Foothills Primary Care Network
› Highland Primary Care Network
› Mosaic Primary Care Network
› Calgary Rural Primary Care Network
› South Calgary Primary Care Network
HEALTH MATTERS
SUMMER 2018
More than half of people living with
chronic pain have other health concerns
such as mental health and digestive issues,
obesity and arthritis. “We work with the
individual using a biopsychosocial approach
that encompasses all the elements that
may impact the experience of disease,”
Bergman says.