Pain Care Rights: How Patients Can Get the Help They Need and Deserve

Abstract

Pain is a ma jor healthcare cri sis in the United States. More than 50 mil lion Amer i cans suf fer from chronic ma lig nant and non-ma lig nant pain, and each year an other 25 mil lion ex pe ri ence acute pain as a re sult of in jury or sur gery. Al though most pain can be re lieved or greatly eased with proper pain man age ment, most goes un treated, undertreated, or im prop erly treated. Why? The prob lem is that, un til re cently, pain has not been rec og nized as a crit i cal health is sue by healthcare pro fes sion als, policy makers, or the pub lic. For the most part, the pub lic is still un aware that most pain can be re lieved or man aged, and that they have the right to ef fec tive pain man age ment. And most healthcare pro fes sion als have not been ad e quately trained to man age pain ef fec tively. So even when peo ple with pain seek help, it is of ten very hard to find. The Amer i can Pain Foun da tion (APF) is an in de pend ent, non profit con sumer in for ma tion, ed u ca tion and ad vo cacy or ga ni za tion that ad dresses these crit i cal pain is sues by rais ing pub lic aware ness, pro vid ing prac ti cal in for ma tion about pain and pain care, and ad vo cat ing to re move bar ri ers and in crease ac cess to ef fec tive pain man age ment.