Pain BC is working toward a vision of an inclusive society where all people in pain are able to live, work, play, relate, and learn with confidence and hope. Our vision will only be realized by reducing and mitigating the impacts of pain on all aspects of patients’ and their families’ lives. These impacts will be addressed by providing access to essential pain management resources, ranging from prevention to self-management, and from early identification and intervention, to more complex and long term pain management programs. Pain BC’s unique approach recognizes that whether one is dealing with arthritis, heart disease, cancer, or other chronic conditions, persistent pain is the common element with the greatest single impact on quality of life. A disease may be successfully treated, but unless pain is properly addressed, the suffering of patients and their families continues. Pain BC began as a grassroots movement led by an interdisciplinary group of pain experts frustrated by the lack of resources available to their patients in pain. It then swelled into a multi-faceted province-wide initiative and formally became an NGO in late 2008. In the few years since, Pain BC has emerged as the ‘go to’ organization for people in pain looking for resources and peer support, health care providers seeking tools and skills to better assess and manage their patients’ chronic pain, as well as health care policy and decision makers committed to systemic change.
