September 2009 - Pain Awareness Month
Learning Opportunities
For Health Care Professionals:
- Addressing the Barriers of Effective Pain Management and Issues of Opioid Abuse in the Acute and Chronic Setting - The France Foundation, a continuing medical education company, is offering support for health care organzizations to host a grand rounds educational activity on pain management. The Foundaiton is prepared to assist with recruitment and training of a expert faculty presenter, speaker honorarium, organization and support of logistics, and more. The offer is open through June 2010. To learn more or click here or contact the France Foundation directly .
- Making the Invisible Visible: A Chronic Pain Manual for Health Care Providers - A 250-page manual including up-to-date information on chronic pain presented in a useful format that includes coping skills and strategies in handout form for clients and clinicians. For more information or to order
For those in pain:
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Chronic Disease Self-Management Program- This program is taught at various locations across the state by an accredited instructor from the Regional Arthritis Center (RAC). To learn more about the RACs or find a workshop in your area, click here. If you are interested in training to become a workshop facilitator, click here.
MOPI Meeting Schedule for 2010
-
Thursday, May 6 - Board conference call at 12pm
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Thursday, August 5 - Board conference call at 12 pm
- Monday, November 8 - General members meeting to be held in conjunction with the Midwest Conference on End of LIfe Care scheduled for November 8 -9 at
the Hyatt Regency Riverfront. Save the date - more details will be forthcoming.
News on the Pain Policy Front
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends removing all combination opioid medications with acetaminophen from the market and limiting the dosage of acetaminophen in over-the-counter medications. While the FDA has not yet acted on the recommendation of the panel, it often follows their lead, which has be prompted by concerns that patients taking medicines that contain acetaminophen are largely ignorant of the safe dosages and unaware that an overdose can cause severe liver damage. (link to Associated Press coverage of announcement) (Note: The American Pain Foundation has put together Question and Answer Sheet to explain how these medications could increase the risk of liver damage and what options are available if you are taking any of these products.)
- Missouri Pain Initiative endorses recommendations made to the FDA to employ a balanced and rational approach in creating their Proposed Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategy (REMS) for opioid therapy. Recognizing that abuse and misuse of opioid medicines is a serious public safety concern with devastating consequences, we do not endorse restrictive, punitive systems such as patient “registries” which further stigmatize people with pain. Any solution must not cause harm to one substantially larger group of Americans in order to attempt to protect another group from harm. FDA announcement on REMS The Pain Care Forum's REMS Consensus Recommendations
- Update on The National Pain Care Policy Act of 2009 - As of 6/23/09 the Senate Health , Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee members voted unanimously to include the National Pain Care Policy Act 2009 (S660) as an amendment to the national health care reform bill. MOPI has joined over 120 other organizations in supporting passage of the National Pain Care Policy Act (NPCPA) of 2009. The NHPCA would combat pain in four ways: by authorizing an Institute of Medicine Conference on Pain Care; authorizing a Pain Consortium at the National Institutes of Health; providing comprehensive pain care education and training for health care professionals; and by instituting a public awareness campaign on pain management. Read APF Consensus Statement
On-line Pain Directory – Find Help
Here
Need help finding someone who can
assess and treat your pain? The Missouri Pain Initiative has
launched an on-line directory containing a list of pain
professionals who currently provide pain management services to
Missourians. You can search the directory by pain professional
specialty, type of pain
condition, pain professional name, or geographic area. To access
the directory click
here. NOTE: This is a voluntary listing
and not all inclusive. It is our hope that as more pain professionals
become aware of the opportunity to be listing in the directory, more
will add their
information.
Pain Professionals - Get Listed In Our
On-Line Pain Directory
The Missouri Pain Initiative is continuing
to accept and welcome listings in our on-line directory
of pain professionals who currently provide pain management
services to Missourians. Click
here to complete a directory listing. You also will
be required to download,
sign and return a disclaimer before your listing will be
released to the directory.
Free
Pain Resource - Managing Pain Begins with You
Managing Pain Begins with You is
an easy to read and understand pain brochure for pain sufferers
and health care providers and their practice settings. Click
here to view the brochure and get ordering information. This brochure is also available in a Spanish version.
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