Toward democratization of health: Thinking critically about the role of patient engagement in chronic pain research

Meaningful engagement with people with lived experience is increasingly recognized and practiced in the chronic pain space. Processes and practices of engagement still face many challenges, especially when it comes to engaging with systemically and structurally marginalized groups. This session will focus on the work developed through the SSHRC-funded Partnership for the Engagement of People in Pain Research (PEPR), which aims to advance social science research in the field of chronic pain and build capacity for critical social science approaches to pain research.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss how those involved in chronic pain research and patient engagement, including clinicians, researchers, and people with lived experience, can build critical thinking into their work, including expanding notions of “who counts.”

2. Highlight how critical social science can inform efforts to meaningfully engage with historically marginalized groups.

3. Explore how questions of equity, diversity, inclusivity, and decolonization have been taken up in critical pain scholarship, and…