CFIDS Association Joins Chronic Pain Consortium

Advocacy Alert: 8/21/2002

Wednesday August 21, 10:11 am Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: American Chronic Pain Association

New Partnership Speaks for People With Pain, Declares September Pain Awareness Month

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time, 45 national organizations have joined together to raise awareness of the problems caused by pain. Partners for Understanding Pain is a consortium of groups that touch the lives of people with chronic, acute and cancer pain. Each partner brings its own perspective to the dialogue, making Partners for Understanding Pain a comprehensive network of resources and knowledge about issues in pain management.

The consortium is beginning its awareness campaign by designating September as Pain Awareness Month.

The Partners for Understanding Pain will work to build understanding that pain is a serious public health issue. They will target health care professionals, the business community, legislators, individuals with pain and their families, and the general public with the campaign. "Pain touches all aspects of our society," said Penney Cowan, executive director of the American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA), which is spearheading the Partners for Understanding Pain consortium. "This partnership is unique because it reflects both the medical and socioeconomic impacts of pain. Pain and its consequences are issues of unrecognized enormity."

As part of the pain awareness campaign, the Partners for Understanding Pain will educate the public about pain facts versus myths and the impact of pain on society, including the following:

• More than 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain;
• Our economy loses an estimated $100 billion in productivity to pain annually;
• Multi-disciplinary pain management units are closing as health care facilities struggle with declining revenues;
• Rising health care costs combined with limited health insurance benefits leave some, especially senior citizens, unable to get the care that can help them manage their pain;
• Abuse by a few individuals and unwarranted fears of addiction have awakened stigmas that keep many from even asking about pain management medicines; and
• Underserved populations (e.g. ethnic minorities, seniors, women) continue to face barriers to effective treatment.

In September 2002 the Partners for Understanding Pain will release results of a survey of public perceptions of pain. Over the next 12 months, the Partners for Understanding Pain will focus on national and locally based educational activities culminating in a national roundtable and white paper on pain management issues in September 2003. The Partners for Understanding Pain hope that the education program will set the stage for ongoing awareness activities during the Decade of Pain Control and Research, the 10 calendar years beginning on January 1, 2001.

Since 1980, the ACPA has offered peer support and education for individuals with chronic pain and their families. The ACPA works to raise awareness among the health care community, policymakers and the public about issues of living with chronic pain. For more information, visit www.theacpa.org

Partners List
August 12, 2002 American

Academy of Nurse Practitioners
American Academy of Pain Medicine
American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
American Alliance of Cancer Pain Initiatives
American Back Society
American Cancer Society
American Chronic Pain Association
American Nurses Association
American Pain Foundation
American Pain Society
American Sleep Apnea Association
American Society of Perianesthesia Nurses
American Society of Pain Management Nurses
Association of Rehabilitation Nurses
Association of Repetitive Motion Syndromes
Arthritis Foundation
Baylor College of Medicine: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Center for Cancer Pain Research at Johns Hopkins
Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) Association of America
City of Hope Pain/Palliative Care Resource Center
Circle of Friends With Arachnoiditis
Family Caregivers Alliance
Intercultural Cancer Council
International Endometriosis Association
International Polio Network
Interstitial Cystitis Association
Lupus Foundation of America
National Association of Social Workers
National Black Women's Health Project
National Committee on the Treatment of Intractable Pain
National Consumer League
National Fibromyalgia Partnership
National Headache Foundation
National Pain Foundation
National Urban League
National Vulvodynia Association
National Women's Health Resource
Pain Aid
Peripheral Neuropathy
Progress on Pain
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome (RSDS) Association of America
Sickle Cell Disease Association
Trigeminal Neuralgia Association
Triumph Over Pain Foundation
VZV Research Foundation

SOURCE: American Chronic Pain Association