Chronic Pain Patient To Be Heard? Take the Survey!

http://www.nationalpainreport.com/chronic-pain-patient-to-be-heard-take-the-survey-8830008.html

By Ed Coghlan

The U.S. Pain Foundation is the largest pain advocacy group in the United States. It has been sharpening its message in recent weeks on the importance of the U.S. pain community coming together in a common voice, as evidenced by this op-ed by their President that the National Pain Report published last week.

In an email communication to the thousands of members and associates they boast, they have asked the pain community to complete a survey that has the goal of uniting the pain community to advocate for improved access to quality health care.

They asked the National Pain Report if we would promote the survey, which we agreed to do because it is our belief that hearing the voice of the chronic pain patient is critical.

Here’s a link to the survey, which we recommend that you take. If real change is going to occur, it has to start somewhere. The voice of the chronic pain patients and their families/loved ones seems like a good place to start.

As the U.S. Pain Foundation said in the email: “We have been working to unite the pain community to advocate for further pain research, fair access to all forms of care (including integrative and complementary therapies) and legislation that fulfills the needs of people with pain.

While U.S. Pain continues to educate the general public and healthcare professionals to better understand chronic pain as a disease, it is imperative to discover how we, as pain warriors, can mobilize our efforts to make positive change at the federal level.”

The organization addressed the major issue in chronic pain treatment today – the federal agency emphasis on addressing the abuse and misuse of pain medication.

U.S. Pain is collecting data to gain a sense of how much information is known about the CDC Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, FDA Opioids Action Plan and the National Pain Strategy (NPS).

“To move the pain community forward, toward a nation which can support and acknowledge chronic pain as a disease and addiction as a disease, pain patients, caregivers and providers are needed to weigh in on the questions below,” they said.

Filed under: General Problems