Talk about suffering in silence! Next month, September, is “National Pain Awareness Month” and hardly anybody seems to know. Or, care?
This annual observance starts very soon; yet, according to our extensive search there is practically no recognition of it for 2009 — no press releases, special events, not even a commemorative logo. One exception is the PAINWeek09 Conference (September 9-12, 2009 in Las Vegas), and this is an independently organized educational program for healthcare professionals. Other than that, we could find nothing drawing attention to Pain Awareness Month 2009, which is supposed to focus attention on the plights of Americans with pain, especially chronic pain.
Ironically, September also is “National Alcohol & Drug Addiction Recovery Month,” and if patients with pain develop addiction to alcohol or other drugs, including to their pain-relieving medications, there are plenty of folks interested. Three different U.S. government agencies (with combined multibillion-dollar budgets) are dedicated to helping such patients: the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (SAMHSA/CSAT); the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); and, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (NIAAA).
There is an impressive government-supported website for Alcohol & Drug Addiction Recovery Month from SAMHSA/CSAT, featuring announcements and extensive resources, a Facebook presence, and they have enlisted nearly 125 partnering organizations from the public and private sectors to help promote observances throughout the month. Check it out at RecoveryMonth.gov. Certainly, this is worthwhile; there are an estimated 15-million Americans struggling with alcohol abuse or alcoholism, and another 4-million or so affected by other drug abuse and addiction.
Meanwhile, there are many times more people suffering with pain; 50- to 76-million Americans, depending on which survey data one accepts. What do these persons have by way of support? There are no government agencies with “Pain” in their titles. Rather than being acknowledged as a distinct disease or disorder, chronic pain is at best incorporated as one symptom of diseases/disorders served by agencies such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), or the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). While pain management may be considered important by these agencies, their missions are much broader. There also is an NIH Pain Consortium; however, its purpose is “to enhance pain research and promote collaboration among researchers across the many NIH Institutes and Centers.”
Pain Awareness Month was added to the U.S. National Health Observances Calendar by the American Pain Foundation (APF). Running late this year, APF is still planning to launch its “Conquering Pain Together” campaign [go to this website], including an online petition, toolkit, and other promotional materials to help individuals take action in their local communities. This campaign is expected to culminate in the first ever National Day of Action on Saturday, September, 26th 2009.
Meanwhile, where are the many other professional organizations and advocacy groups serving patients within the U.S. pain community? They seem to have overlooked Pain Awareness Month this year — or, maybe we’re wrong. Let us know.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
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6 comments:
Not overlooked in Los Angeles!
http://www.forgrace.org/images/uploads/WIP_PR_Rational360_6-22-09.pdf
Keep up the great work - and please give us a plug if you can...
Best,
John Garrett
Director, For Grace
I am a mental health therapist with many clients who have chronic pain. I DO NOT forget them :)
In fact, I give them this website and literature for self education and to take to their doctors.
Julaine Siegel @JGcgull@aol.com
The Pain Relief Network, a tiny nonprofit organization must be mentioned for their momentous political/civil rights work on behalf of Americans in pain. The founder and President of PRN Siobhan Reynolds lost her husband Sean Greenwood to under treated chronic pain three years ago this month.
Latest Press Release can be read at the following address.
http://painreliefnetwork.org/blog/to-the-obama-administration/
Thank you,
Tami Strand
Pain Relief Network
there is a huge firestorm in this country now over some 46 million medically uninsured american citizens, yet nary a peep for those in chronic pain. unless, of course, it's yet another article of how a pain doc has been shut down leaving hundreds of people without critical care...doubt pain relief is critical? try *living* day in , day out in chronic pain, barely able to breathe, much less turn out the dog or fix a decent meal...
in any pain conversation, one has to include the actions of the government. we had and apparently have a government that seems quite happy to equate opiates with evil-doers and addiction. it's a bad business, and shortsighted policy enactments now has the potential to spell total disability for millions...
a mere annual nod to pain *clearly* is NOT getting the job done...
we NEED more research, we NEED doctors who are not afraid to treat their patients because of the DEA's shadow, we NEED doctors who are better educated in the disease of chronic pain, and the downward spiral domino effect untreated pain wreaks on the body's systems.
we need help, we need compassion, and we need knowledge...
can a mere month do all that?
This is sad indeed that pain/chronic/intractable pain is being over looked. I know there is not much public awareness or public education on this subject because before CP became a part of my life I didn't know anything about it. I certainly had no idea how crippling and life changing it could be. I know now all too well. I have been researching and educating myself since 2001 when pain entered my life on a permanent basis.
To have pain awareness month and National Alcohol & Drug Addiction Recovery Month in the same month is ironic to say the least. Chronic pain patients have been fighting the labels of drug addicts and abusers for way too long now. We are treated like second class citizens made to follow arbitrary rules and contracts, made to submit to urine tests to keep our care. Most are only allowed to use one pharmacy and these are just a few examples of what we have to submit to in order to receive care. The rules in pain care when involving pain medicines are all encompassing and choking. Any other patient population would not have to submit to all this in order to receive care. We are looked at and treated with suspicion from the get go. We are made to submit to painful tests and invasive procedures. Yes we can say no to all of this stuff we have to submit to but saying no is almost a guarantee you will not receive care anymore and some nasty remark will go on your chart which will follow you around to other Doctors and make it almost impossible to get care from anyone else. There is hardly any pain treating physicians as it is. If you’re lucky enough to find one that will treat most patients will not rock the boat so to speak in fear of losing care.
Let’s not over look the suicide rate among Chronic/Intractable pain patients, the number one cause of death among this patient population. This could be prevented in the majority of cases if we had enough Doctors and patients could receive life saving pain medication/opioids. The fear of prescribing these meds has over run the medical community because of the fear of addiction when in fact the addiction rate in the chronic pain population has been around 1 to 3%.
I commend and thank any group or organization that is doing what they can to bring attention and education to this devastating and disabling disease. We as individuals need to do our part as well and not stay silent on this matter anymore. We need to speak up, write our representatives, educate where we can.
As a person with chronic pain, i am uncomfortable (no pun intended) with the apparent message that pain management and a prescription for a narcotic medications are synonymous. There are many of us who did not have good experiences with narcotics, but have found a way to manage pain with the continued help and persistence of some excellent healthcare providers. In my case, the TENS unit and conditioning program through wonderful input from my NP and physical therapist has made a huge difference in my life with need for low dose prn medications only a couple of days a week. I started to manage my pain better when I finally realized that there was no pill that would make me do my twice daily exercises. Now that I have commited to participating in my own recovery, I have many more good days than bad days and feel better overall. THANK YOU to all those MDs, NPs, PTs, etc who do listen and continue to try to help their patients until they succeed!
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