Holiday Closure 2025
As the year comes to a close, we at Change Pain Clinic would like to inform you about our holiday…
What Kind of Specialist Clinic are we?
We are one of few CPSBC accredited PPM centres and the only one in BC offering the advanced infusion programs (PMI and KET) in addition to Allied Health services. Our integrated multidimensional pain and rehab service maximizes MSP-funded services and supports insured /private pay services. We support integrated whole person care by using a neuroscience-based approach to help patients recover function early from motor vehicle accidents, surgery, cancer therapy or work and sports injury.
We address various persistent pain mechanisms like chronic inflammation, neuroplasticity, central sensitization, and nutrient imbalance in addition to offering ways of preventing acute injuries from chronicity. We support mental health with counselling, movement therapies, nutrition, and advanced ketamine infusion therapy.
Our 65-member team consists of medical specialties including pain medicine, anesthesiology, addiction medicine, public health, psychiatry, interventional pain medicine, internal medicine, occupational medicine, integrative medicine, rheumatology, physiatry and family medicine as well as pain-specialized family medicine. In addition to medical specialties, changepain also provides integrative services including chiropractic, physiotherapy, kinesiology, somatic therapy, kinesiology, acupuncture, yoga, counselling and nutrition.
Our standard medical therapies include medication management, ultrasound-guided and fluoroscopy-guided pain procedures and therapies. We also provide a variety of movement therapies, rehab and multiple complementary therapies such as trauma- informed counselling, Pilates, energy healing, acupuncture, hypnosis, and therapeutic yoga.
What Patients do we treat?
Prevention–minded patients
While most of our patients come to us for pain treatment, many seek us to help improve their overall health and prevent further injuries through our ever-expanding Group Medical Visit (GMV) programs and Allied Health services.
Persistent Pain conditions
- Musculoskeletal: Spine, joint, myofascial, tendinopathy, overuse syndromes
- Neuropathic: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, peri-surgical care, post-cancer therapy, metabolic/chronic disease related
- Visceral: Pelvic, post-surgical, abdominal
- Central Sensitization: Widespread pain like fibromyalgia, disabling headache, post trauma
Advanced therapies for Mental Health
- PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Depression
- Anxiety
Specific patient groups
- Pre-surgical pre-habilitation optimization & early post-surgical recovery
- ICBC-WSBC: early diagnostic and rehabilitation from injury and return to work
- Opioid Weaning: interdisciplinary multi-dimensional pain management
- Veterans: mental health, physical conditioning and pain treatments and understanding the challenges of transition
- Depression-PTSD: multi-dimensional approach for mental health
Steps for Sending Referral
Steps for sending MSP-Covered Medical Services Referrals
For Doctors
- Approximate wait-times for MSP consultations is 4-6 months.
- For private pay medical services, please contact our Private Pay Services Coordinator.
- Download the above referral form, and fax it to 604-566-9102
- When we receive the referral form, we will send your office an acceptance letter and contact your patient with the appointment date and time.
- Mandatory information to include in the referral:
- The patient’s email address and cell phone number are mandatory as these are our primary methods of communication. If the patient does not have an email, please have them complete the Proxy Access Consent form and fax it back along with the referral
- Attach key consults and imaging reports within the last two years
- Referring doctor sends a no-charge referral 3333 to MSP under Dr. Brenda Lau (#26194)
- Note:Â Dr. Lau receives all referrals on behalf of all the changepain physicians.
- Important: Please provide all the mandatory information on the referral form as this reduces delay in scheduling.
Medical Services Acceptance Criteria
• Urgent Referrals (Additional to requirements for Non- Urgent Referrals)
- Medically stable Cancer patients requiring urgent procedures
- Urgent multidisciplinary team assessment (private pay only)
- Patients with < 3 months onset radicular pain (radiologically plus clinically abnormal findings)
- Complex regional pain syndrome or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD)
- Non-responsive Depression (ketamine infusion)
- Severe neuropathic pain (lidocaine or ketamine infusion therapy)
• Non- Urgent Referrals
- The patient must have a family physician or a regular walk-in clinic that will provide follow-up care and medication renewal.
- Patient is unresponsive to conventional treatment.
- Patient and/or caregiver are cognitively capable and willing to participate with suggested regimen of therapy.
- Patient can communicate in English or able to bring an interpreter to all the appointments
- Patient requires perioperative optimization (SPOC)
- Referring Physician(s) agrees:
- to participate with a suggested regimen of therapy
- to continue to be their primary care provider. changepainTM does not take over primary care of the patient or ongoing medication prescription
- To order appropriate initial investigations ruling out red flag conditions
- To send completed results
Medical Services Rejection Criteria
- Patients without Primary Care Physician or Walk-In clinics able to provide ongoing care.
- Patient is medically unstable requiring inpatient care and monitoring.
- Patient has an undertreated ongoing infection source.
- Patient has untreated/uncontrolled addiction to controlled substances or mental illness, leaving them unable to comply with pain management recommendations.
- Active WorkSafe BC patients, unless WorkSafe BC has confirmed whether they will cover changepain services.
- Patients who are 17 years old and under at the time the referral is sent
Meet our interdisciplinary team
NEWS / UPDATES
January 2025 GMV Updates
Good news! MSP changed their rules to increase accessibility for new patients. New patients without a referral can self-book and…
Update to Our Phone Service for Improved Communication
To enhance communication efficiency, we have deactivated the option for patients to leave voice messages on the “medical side” (Reception)…
New GMV: Themes in Living as a Highly Sensitive Person
We are excited to introduce a new GMV called, “Themes in Living as a Highly Sensitive Person” led by Dr.…