Pam Montie

Rheumatoid Arthritis has been Pam’s constant companion since 1985.  In the early stages of her disease, Pam became a leader of the Arthritis Self Management Programs (ASMP), sponsored through The Arthritis Society. This program personally helped her, giving her a sense of empowerment, passion, and a feeling of accomplishment in helping others. A few years later, she became an ASMP trainer to take this program across Canada and was sent to Winnipeg, Kitchener, and Hamilton to train others to put on the ASMP in their own communities. She has also contributed to arthritis support and advocacy groups in her local community of Chilliwack.

Several of the organizations of which she is a member:  CAPA (Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance), ACE (Arthritis Consumer Experts), and a member-on-leave of Patient Partners in Arthritis.

She is involved with the arthritis research community. Here, she believes that the educated consumer should be involved in every aspect of research to contribute the perspective of a person living with this disease. This has led to her involvement with: the Consumer Advisory Board of the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada; the NET (New Emerging Teams with the Canadian Arthritis Network) research projects Tooling Up for Early Osteoarthritis: Measuring What Matters; and OMERACT (international research in ‘Outcome Measures’) where she is a member of the Patient Research Partners.  These are all leading edge in involving consumers at the arthritis research table. She is very proud to be involved in these endeavors, sharing her passion, experiences, and knowledge and contributing to the improvement of lives of people with arthritis.