|
“Addressing the enormous burden of pain will require a cultural transformation…. Effective pain management is a moral imperative, a professional responsibility, and the duty of people in the healing professions.” (Institute of Medicine, Relieving Pain in America, 2011)
The Pain Action Alliance to Implement a National Strategy (PAINS)is a national alliance of professional societies, advocacy organizations and others that believe there is a moral imperative to improve the treatment of pain.
In 2010 the Center assessed the potential to develop a national campaign to improve care of those living with chronic pain. This body of work offers a unique window of opportunity and a blueprint for the cultural transformation called for in the Institute of Medicine Report, Relieving Pain in America, released in June 2011.
The IOM report lays out, “A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research” to transform the way pain is treated. Members of the PAINS alliance are in agreement with the sixteen recommendations made by the IOM committee and with their categorization of them as either “Immediate” or “Near-term and Enduring.” (Click here for a report summary including the 16 recommendations.)
Unfortunately, the IOM committee has no implementation authority, and it is up to those agencies named and others to act on the recommendations made.
All those organizations who participated in the research phase of this initiative are committed individually to advancing the ideas set forth in Relieving Pain in America and believe that, by working collaboratively to promote the IOM recommendations, we can significantly increase our influence.
Initial strategies of this endeavor include the following:
• Hold governmental agencies named in the IOM report responsible for acting on specific recommendations,
• Engage and educate the American public, especially people struggling to live with pain, about the need to move to an integrated, bio-psychosocial model of care, and
• Promote additional research within the biomedical and social sciences.
To help support these endeavors, visit the PAINS website. PAINS, in partnership with the Center, also contracted with a national marketing firm for completion of an environmental scan of current activities related to the IOM report with the aim of identifying areas of duplication, gaps, needs and promising practices. The process involved reviewing 40 pain-related websites and interviewing 11 key stakeholders.
For more information on PAINS, contact Myra Christopher, the Kathleen M. Foley Chair for Pain and Palliative Care, at mchristopher@practicalbioethics.org.
Vision: All Americans who struggle to live with pain, notably those with chronic pain, will have access to integrative pain care consistent with their goals and values.
Mission: To advocate for and act collectively to actualize the recommendations set forth in the IOM report.
Link: Institute of Medicine report, Relieving Pain in America
|
