Pain BC Executive Director, Maria Hudspith, speaks on the Simi Sara show about how people living with chronic pain need options beyond prescription opioids, and it’s up to the British Columbia government to provide more services such as physiotherapy.

Listen to the show here.

'VANCOUVER -- People who live with chronic pain need options beyond prescription opioids, and it's up to the British Columbia government to provide more services such as physiotherapy, says the head of a group that supports patients and their families.

An updated version of the national guideline for opioid prescribing was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) on Monday May 8, 2017.

DId you know that every year, since 2011, distracted driving has killed and injured more people than impaired driving? It is now the leading cause of death and injury on BC roadways. Tragically, it kills an average of 81 people per year and injures tens of thousands more - and it's only getting worse.

'VICTORIA - Health Minister Terry Lake announced $1.5 million in new funding today to support British Columbians living with chronic pain. 

'Re: B.C. man with PTSD got opioid, painkiller prescriptions from 10 doctors, Feb. 22

'While much of the health care funding announced on Friday has been earmarked to tackle the opioid crisis, chronic pain sufferers caught in the middle hope the province will use some of it to put a system in place to help them.

One out of every five people in British Columbia lives with chronic pain. For Ada Glustein, an active Vancouver senior, the pain was initially all-consuming.

'While much of the health care funding announced on Friday has been earmarked to tackle the opioid crisis, chronic pain sufferers caught in the middle hope the province will use some of it to put a system in place to help them.

'Like many drug users, Heather Fugere experimented before she started taking opioids regularly. First there were the Tylenol 3s. Then there was the Tramadol. But it wasn't until a bad fall led her to the emergency ward where she discovered Oxycodone. 

"All of a sudden I was pain-free in my back and it was just like living again," Fugere said from her home in Coquitlam, B.C. 

With almost 60,000 listens and counting, Pain BC's Pain Waves podcast is your “go to” for the latest tools, trends, research, and stories on chronic pain - and now it has a new look and a new home! Make sure you update your bookmarks and RSS feeds, because Pain Waves is now on Spreaker.

Since the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC) announced changes to the opioid prescribing standards on June 1 2016, Pain BC and people living with chronic pain, along with representatives from a variety of organizations such as the Pain Medicine Physicians of BC Society, the BC Psychiatric Association, and the People in Pain Network, have been raising concerns with representatives