Thank you.
I will echo the thoughts of thanks for sharing the work. I am actually one of the researchers funded by the Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence to investigate issues in chronic pain. I focus on understanding the impact of sexual harassment, using a recent confidential survey by which we surveyed 300 Canadian veterans.
What we found was that the odds of a woman veteran experiencing sexual harassment during her military service were more than 20:1 compared to the case for her male colleagues. Women were also at double the risk for verbal abuse.
Our research and other reports, and the lived experience you've just heard about from the female veterans, show that women who come forward are often dismissed or even punished for reporting these problems, so many stay silent, unlike the people we've heard from today.
Our research was unique in that we also measured psychological distress and the severity of chronic pain. What our study illustrated was that there is a pathway between sexual harassment and psychological distress, and there is a pathway between psychological distress and having persistent severe chronic pain. This data supports what you've just heard from the experiences of veterans: that sexual harassment and abuse result in not only long-standing psychological problems but also long-standing physical pain, so we cannot solve chronic pain without managing the underlying causes.
Therefore, we confirm that there is a need for protection for those who report discrimination, for systematic changes to culture and training, and for specialized interventions for people experiencing chronic pain that has been aggravated or caused by discrimination.
I thank you for listening.