Important legislation!!

I received a post from an intractable pain advocacy group (http://www.lastacts.org) which urges advocacy in writing to elected officials to provide more information as to why they should support this bill. One of the important aspects is in the substantive and valid understanding of the medical needs of chronic and intractable pain patients to develop a subsidiary branch of the National Insitute of Health to carry out relevant research.

The template letter will be posted in the Activism Links, where you will also find your local congressional representatives.

The National Pain Care Policy Act (H.R. 1863) would create a National Center for Pain and Palliative Care Research at the National Institutes of Health as part of a campaign to raise public awareness about pain and palliative care, which supports the medical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of people suffering intractable pain in their daily lives as well as palliative care. The bill also includes funds to improve pain treatment and would allocate more resources for pain research.

The Pain Care Policy Act also would create a White House Conference on Pain Care to identify key barriers as part of a national campaign to provide public information regarding responsible pain management, related treatments and more aggressive palliative care.

In addition, the bill would require NIH to establish programs that develop and advance the quality, appropriateness and effectiveness of pain and palliative care and authorize the Health and Human Services Secretary to award grants, cooperative agreements and public/private contracts to further the education and training of health care professionals in those areas.

Introduced by Rep. Michael Rogers (R-8th MI), this legislation would create a National Center for Pain and Palliative Care Research at the National Institutes of Health as part of a campaign to raise public awareness about pain and palliative care, which supports the medical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of people whose quality of life is compromised by pain.

This bill also provides important federal recognition of pain as a priority public health problem in the United States, authorizing additional federal resources for pain and palliative care research, professional and patient education, public awareness, and training. Further, the bill includes provisions to improve access to appropriate diagnosis and treatment for pain in federally financed health care facilities and federally managed care programs.

Pain is a major public health problem, but the federal government currently conducts little research that would help support appropriate pain management. More than 50 million people are afflicted with pain, whether chronic pain or pain at the end of life, at a cost to the nation $100 billion each year.

anna22