Project Title: Movimiento Juntos: A mind-body skills class for Spanish-speaking people living with chronic pain

Brief Project Description:

Chronic pain is one of the most common causes of disability and suffering in the United States. Non-medication treatments including integrative therapies are recommended (instead of or along with pain medications), but such treatments are not widely available to people with limited English proficiency or lower-income people. Our team conducts research on the Integrative Pain Management Program, which 12-week integrative group medical visits in English and Spanish, in partnership with San Francisco Health Network. Currently, ongoing support after the program is available in English only. Spanish-speaking participants have urged our team to provide longer-term integrative health and social support. This project would pilot an in-person, Spanish-language public class that provides peer support and mind-body practices for chronic pain management. The group will be located at the Osher Center and will be open to the public, including Spanish-speaking Osher Center patients and Mount Zion primary care patients.

Brief Statement of Project Feasibility and Anticipated Impact:

Osher Center researchers and San Francisco Health Network have collaborated on integrative chronic pain care and related research for >10 years, with multiple versions of an Integrative Pain Management Program in English, and recent development of a 12-week Spanish language program (59 participants enrolled to date). Spanish-speaking participants have directly requested ongoing, in-person support beyond the 12-week program, and all program facilitators are interested in contributing to an ongoing class. To evaluate the class, we will invite participants to complete brief surveys about their chronic pain and related symptoms, as well as social support and program satisfaction. Mind-body practices and social support are known to help reduce chronic pain and pain-related symptoms, while external stress is known to worsen chronic conditions. We are confident that this group would support the wellbeing of Spanish-speaking Latine immigrants during a time of exacerbated stress due to policy change, while serving a model for ongoing group programming after short-term interventions.

Deliverables:

Our project aims to pilot a free, drop-in public class at the Osher Center providing mind-body practices for chronic pain management in Spanish. Classes will meet weekly for 90 minutes from September through May. This class will be open to the public, and recruitment will focus on Spanish-speaking Osher Center patients, San Francisco Health Network patients participating in Osher Center-affiliated research, and primary care patients from the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine clinic at Mount Zion.

Impact on Osher Center Community:

The Osher Center clinic is serving a rising number of Spanish-speaking patients and is uniquely situated to expand access to integrative therapies for chronic pain management in multiple languages.Our project will include collaboration between Osher Center researchers, clinicians, and public classes team, as well as external partners. This program will benefit the overall Osher Center and Mount Zion community in several ways:

• provide language-concordant access to integrative health services for Spanish-speaking patients at Mount Zion clinics
• encourage cross-program collaboration within the Osher Center
• increase awareness of the Osher Center among Spanish-speaking communities and organizations in San Francisco.

Team Members and Roles

Project Lead: Samuel Solis

Project Advisor: Ariana Thompson-Lastad

Lead teacher: Zoë Elena

Advisory team Members (guest speakers, support navigating Osher Center processes):

• San Francisco Health Network: Ann Dallman, Sebastian Melo, Naomi Schoenfeld
• OCIH Clinic: Fatima Barragan, Carla Kuon
• OCIH research: Christa Fernando, Maria T Chao, Denise Ruvalcaba
• OCIH public classes team: Anita Botello Santoyo, Julia Burns, Selena Chan, Jen Shea
• OCIH finance team: Calvin Tse

Total Budget Requested: $20,000

Project Significance and Innovation

Mind-body practices and social support are known to benefit chronic pain and pain-related symptoms (e.g., mental health, sleep). Integrative care can include support from practitioners, and guidance on daily practices such as nutrition, movement, and coping with pain. In San Francisco 11.7% of residents speak Spanish as their primary language. However, this community often lacks access to integrative health care due to financial, physical, and language-related barriers to care.

Movimiento Juntos, a drop-in Spanish-language class for people with chronic pain, will be taught by a bilingual yoga and mindfulness teacher (Zoë Elena), with recruitment and administrative coordination from a bilingual Osher Center staff member (Samuel Solis). Zoë has experience teaching Spanish-speaking people with chronic pain and works closely with Sammy on the Integrative Pain Management Program. Guest speakers from the Osher Center and San Francisco Health Network will be invited to present on pain-related topics such as anti-inflammatory nutrition, mindfulness practices, and acupressure. Resources shared with participants for home practice will include Spanish-language videos created by the OCIH HOME project. To evaluate the class, participants will be invited to provide feedback on the program as well as complete brief surveys about their chronic pain and overall health (at their initial participation, 3 months into participation, and end of 9-month pilot).

Timeline (06/30/2025- 06/30/2026)

• Jun-Jul 2025: Grant Awarded, kickoff meeting, planning class and evaluation, scheduling facilitators and guest speakers, translating consent forms or other materials
• Aug 2025: Participant recruitment
• Sept 2025-May 2026: Run weekly group at Osher Center, collect survey data
• May-Jun 2026—Analyze evaluation data, write final report

Name of the supervisor who has provided release time: Julia Wu (for Samuel Solis)