Your Role as a Friend or Family Member
Your role is especially important, and Allevio respects the responsibility that you have. We do everything we can to make things easier for both you and the patient you are with. This section of the website addresses some of the questions you have about chronic pain and caring for those who suffer from it. It will answer questions you have about a program Allevio offers that you may find helpful and what to expect at our clinic.
Individualized Multidisciplinary Consultations
Allevio offers a special service to the caregivers of our patients as well as to patients and their caregivers who are not currently working with us. It offers an hour of focused conversation and consultation with a highly specialized pain management team including a medical practitioner, psychologist, and/or naturopath, chiropractor and osteopath. Each team is determined on a case-specific basis. The meeting is your opportunity to ask a team of experts all of your questions about care – from what can you do to help, what treatments are available, what outcomes to expect from treatment, and what lifestyle changes and products may exist to help or improve the patient’s quality of life.
These consultations are private, client-requested assessments. As such, consultations that include non-physician professionals will incur a fee for this service.
Who We Treat and How We Treat Them
Allevio typically sees patients who have back, neck, shoulder, and head pain (including migraines). Allevio also sees patients with Raynaud’s, diabetics with pain (Diabetic Neuropathy), acute and sport injuries and patients looking for alternative treatments such as Osteopathy.
Our process begins with an initial consultation with a physician. The pain doctors at our clinic are all Royal College Specialists, currently all anesthesiologists, and we have the certification and equipment on-site to be able to perform what are known as interventions (or small procedures) to help manage a wide spectrum of different types of pain.
If a physician feels it is appropriate, they will outline the best route for treatment, and explain what the relevant procedures are all about. They may, at their discretion, recommend a patient see one of our allied professionals. This would be to complement their care, or to be able to help in ways that the medical doctor cannot
How To Help A Patient Prepare For A Visit To Allevio
Find out more about how the patient is feeling before the consultation
Please be sure to sit with the patient in advance of the consultation and think through the symptoms and information about the feelings, times and ways that the patient feels pain. What you notice when you are not in the consultation room may be valuable information for the physician.
Prepare medical notes, images and files that the Physician may need
Please prepare all medical notes and images that the physician may need in advance of coming in, so the patient is not overly worried about missing documents that may benefit the physician working with them.
Please ensure they have a VALID health card + up to date insurance information
Please ensure they have their VALID health card, third party insurance information (for example WSIB, Accident Benefit, Extended Health) and any other information they may need.
Create a list of all medications that the patient takes
Please make a list of all prescriptions and medication that the patient currently takes.
Parking at the Allevio Pain Management Clinic
Allevio patients have parking on the second level parking lot, the main parking level and just in front of 240 Duncan Mill. Patients are welcome to use either, pre-paid parking fees may apply and are enforced on the main level parking areas.
Timing and Driving
Be prepared to be with us a while. Appointments can take longer than expected, and if a procedure is done it is very difficult to know exactly how long it will take before a patient is able to leave the clinic. Please be sure to review handouts explaining particular guidelines for procedures including driving and fasting instructions. Patients who receive sedation or intravenous medication must be driven home, so please be prepared to either remain in the waiting room or return early for pick-up and allow adequate time before booking other appointments on the same day.