In the Face of Pain

Download the “Protecting Access” Fact Sheet

ACTION TOOLS:

At Purdue Pharma L.P., we are working with health care professionals, law enforcement, and local communities across the country to help curb diversion and abuse of medications, while making sure these medicines remain available for appropriate medical use. We have developed an array of programs focused on education, prevention, and deterrence. We have developed RxSafetyMatters.org to help healthcare professionals, families and communities, and law enforcement officials learn about and utilize these resources to help reduce the abuse and diversion of prescription medications.

As a part of these efforts, Purdue has also partnered with the National Community Pharmacists Association to develop the Safeguard My Meds program to increase awareness and understanding surrounding pain medication safety.

Purdue’s medical education department also offers prescription drug abuse prevention materials. Health care professionals can access these tools by visiting the Medical Education Resource Catalog Online.

The National Consumers League (NCL), with planning funds from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is organizing a groundbreaking, national multi-media campaign to improve public health by raising consumer awareness of the importance of good medication adherence. The campaign involves a broad cross-section of public and private stakeholders. Click here for more information and ways to get involved.

Partnership at Drug-Free.Org (formerly Partnership for a Drug-Free America) offers a number of public service campaigns, programs and materials targeted toward addressing prescription drug abuse. Click here for more information.

The Partnership also offers the “Parents Toll-Free Helpline,” a nationwide support service that offers assistance to parents and other primary caregivers of children who want to talk to someone about their child’s drug use and drinking. The Helpline is open Monday through Friday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm ET and can be reached at (855)-DRUGFREE (1-855-378-4373).

In 2010, the American Pain Foundation launched a program called PainSAFE (Safety and Access For Everyone), an educational initiative designed for people with pain and health care professionals. The mission of PainSAFE is to provide education surrounding the appropriate and safe use of pain management therapies for people affected by pain and health care professionals, thereby, helping to reduce risk and improve access to quality pain care. The site includes resources and tools that can be used to support advocacy efforts. More information can be found at www.painSAFE.org.

Also in 2010, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) launched medication take-back days where people can bring expired or unused medication for safe disposal. These present natural news opportunities to reinforce key messages about ensuring that medication is taken only by the intended recipient. To find upcoming dates and locations, visit www.dea.gov.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published the handout “A Guide to Safe Use of Prescription Pain Medication” in February 2009. The FDA also posts information on safe medication disposal.

The Pain & Policy Studies Group provides a number of resources that can assist with advocacy surrounding balance in pain policy, including state policy report cards. More information can be found at: http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu.

The National Association of State Controlled Substances Authorities provides state profiles and contact information for each state’s controlled substances regulation.

The Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) has developed the “Rx Abuse Toolkit: From Awareness to Action.” This toolkit provides facts, approaches, strategies and messages that coalitions can use to move communities beyond that first stage of awareness into action.

In November 2009, the National Council on Patient Information and Education (NCPIE) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) launched the toolkit “Maximizing Your Role as a Teen Influencer: What You Can Do to Help Prevent Prescription Drug Abuse.” The online resource offers a workshop module that includes a PowerPoint and presenter’s guide. For more information about this and other NCPIE programs visit www.talkaboutrx.org.

For health care professionals, the American College of Prevention Medicine has developed a series of educational modules, or “time tools,” called “Use, Abuse, Misuse, and Disposal of Prescription Pain Medication.”

The Federation of State Medical Boards updated the Model Policy for the Use of Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain in 2004. This policy was developed in collaboration with pain experts around the country to provide guidance to state medical boards in developing pain policies and regulations. Written in the form of a model policy document, the guidelines provide model language that may be used by states to clarify their positions regarding the use of controlled substances to treat pain, alleviate physician uncertainty about such practice and encourage better pain management. In 2004, the FSMB’s House of Delegates adopted recommendations and revised the pain policy to reflect new medical insights in pain treatment, particularly with regard to the undertreatment of pain. More information, including a listing of which states have adopted this policy, can be found at: www.fsmb.org

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Download the “Cost of Pain” Fact Sheet

You may also be interested in the Fact Sheet for Pain in the Workplace

ACTION TOOLS:

The American Academy of Pain Medicine dedicates a portion of their website called “The Cost of Pain to Business and Society Due to Ineffective Pain Care” that can be used for advocacy efforts. Click here for more information.

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Download the “Ethics & Pain” Fact Sheet

ACTION TOOLS:

In 2011, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report “Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research.” Highlights from this report can be used to help educate policymakers, media and communities about pain as a human right.

Pain Action Initiative: A National Strategy (PAINS). The PAINS project is a national initiative of the Center for Practical Bioethics to access the capacity and readiness of individual leaders and organizations to collaborate for the purpose developing a national strategic plan to improve the treatment of chronic pain. Beginning in the summer of 2010, the Center convened five regional meetings to learn from leaders across the country about:

• Their current activities to improve the treatment of people living with chronic pain
• Barriers they encounter that limit or hinder these efforts
• Their thinking about whether or not an agreed upon national strategic plan would benefit their work
• Their willingness to participate in the development of such a plan.
• Healthcare professionals, people living with chronic pain, policy makers, law enforcement agents and philanthropists were invited to these meetings held in Seattle, Boston, Chicago, San Diego, and Tampa.

Click here to view the series of reports from these meetings and listen to podcasts from pain bioethics leaders.

In September 2010, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) galvanized global pain care leaders to demand acknowledgement of pain care as a human right during the 13th World Congress on Pain in Montreal. The “Declaration of Montreal,” was created to call attention to inadequate knowledge of pain management techniques by most medical workers and the lack of national policies in both the developed and developing world regarding the seriousness of pain as a global health problem. Visit the IASP’s website where you can sign and encourage others to sign the “Declaration that Access to Pain Management Is a Fundamental Human Right.”

Additionally, IASP includes Ethical Standards in Pain Management and Research that are available here on the IASP website.

With support from the Open Society Institute International Palliative Care Initiative, Human Rights Watch released a groundbreaking report on the lack of access to pain relief medicines for millions of patients worldwide.

The report, “Please Don’t Make Us Suffer Anymore”: Access to Pain Treatment as a Human Right, finds that countries can significantly improve access to pain medications by addressing the causes of their poor availability, which include the following:

• Failure to put in place functioning supply and distribution systems
• Absence of government policies to ensure medicine availability
• Insufficient instruction for health care workers
• Excessively strict drug-control regulations
• Fear of legal sanctions among healthcare workers

The International Palliative Care Initiative aims to increase public awareness about end-of-life care issues, provide palliative care education to health care professionals, integrate palliative care into health care policies and more.

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Download the “Caregivers & Pain” Fact Sheet

ACTION TOOLS:

Partners Against Pain offers caregiver pain advocacy resources, including an advocacy brochure, information about pain and dementia and pain in the elderly. These tools can be downloaded here.

The American Geriatric Society’s Foundation for Health and Aging offers the resource “Eldercare at Home: A Comprehensive Online Guide for Family Caregivers” (2004) on their website. This guide has a chapter on pain that includes language that can be used when advocating on behalf of someone with pain. Click here for more information.

The Family Caregiver Alliance provides a number of sourced and cited Fact Sheets about caregiving and advocacy, which can be found here.

The Center for Practical Bioethics has developed a consumer education initiative called “Caring Conversations” that helps individuals and their families share meaningful conversation while making practical preparations for end-of-life decisions. Each copy of Caring Conversations includes a healthcare directive document and a durable power of attorney for healthcare decisions. Click here for more information.

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