Workshop offers help for those in pain

Lake City Community Church is sponsoring "A Way Forward ... Help for People Dealing with Chronic Illness and Pain" from 3-5:30 p.m. Sunday at the church, 6000 N. Ramsey Road.

The workshop is designed to help people affected by the dilemma of chronic pain. The event is free and open to all. Registration is requested at lakecitycc.org/forward.

Ron Weaver, a workshop presenter, has dealt with pain related to a chronic health condition for more than 25 years. Weaver's personal struggles with pain and opiate drug dependence led him to begin a peer counseling program dedicated to helping people who share his pain management challenges.

Weaver is a certified addiction coaching trainer and counselor who practices the message he gives: "There may not be a way out of your pain, but there is a way forward."

Weaver will share his story as well as strategies which have helped him manage ongoing, often debilitating and discouraging pain.

Dr. Joe Abate, chief medical officer at Heritage Health, will also present at the workshop. Abate has been instrumental in helping establish a pain management clinic, caring for hundreds of patients dealing with chronic pain.

"With the right approach, many patients have seen a dramatic improvement with reduction or even discontinuation of their medications," Abate said.

Another presenter, Dr. David Wait, serves as director of mental health at Heritage Health. Wait has extensive experience as a board-certified psychiatrist, and plays an active role in helping people deal with chronic pain.

Workshop topics will include adjusting thoughts about pain, raising pain tolerance levels, retraining the brain's emotional pain labels, wellness practices to increase the body's ability to manage pain, visualizing control over pain and ways to avoid increasing pain.

The workshop will be followed by an optional panel discussion during which time attendees' questions will be addressed.

For more information, contact Lake City Community Church at (208) 676-0632 or email Sue Reeve, Crisis Care Director, at [email protected].