“Like most everybody else, at one time I never gave a thought to living with chronic pain. I knew nothing about navigating the world of WCB, of modified work duties, of never going back to the person I was before the injury.” Barbara Carter continues to share her experiences of chronic pain and all that it entails.
Announcing a new series of articles by Barbara Carter, about what it like to to live with chronic pain in Nova Scotia. “Sometimes I think we remain too silent about too many things. Often we wait for someone else to be the change we want to see.This is why I want to share some of my personal experiences with Nova Scotia Advocate readers over the next months, in the hope that it may benefit someone else, in some way.” Barbara tells me she is thinking about tackling her experiences with getting diagnosed and the role of the WCB next.
The results of the 2018 Statistics Canada disabilities survey are in. More than in any other province people in Nova Scotia self-identify as disabled in some shape or form, and that’s not just because we have a large share of older people, as is so often assumed.
We first met Sophia a couple of months ago, and did a Lives on Welfare story about her efforts to provide for her family while struggling with chronic pain. Here are more of Sophia’s memories about growing up on and off welfare. Unable to afford a computer, Sophia wrote this on her phone, because born story tellers like Sophia will always find a way.
Another episode in our series Lives on Welfare where people living in poverty tell their stories: Things went relatively well for Emma, a mother who lives with her daughter in a town an hour or so away from Halifax. Then she got sick, lost her job, and ended up on social assistance. Then her daughter also got sick.
Meet Emma (not her real name), who is on welfare and lives with chronic pain. Her doctor thinks she should get a chiropractic bed, but Community Services doesn’t believe her doctor. Meanwhile, Emma’s appeal got misfiled, and Emma is still waiting.