Media Room
CANADIAN PAIN COALITION LAUNCHES FIRST ANNUAL NATIONAL PAIN AWARENESS WEEK (November 1 – 7) TO SHINE SPOTLIGHT ON “SILENT EPIDEMIC” OF PAIN
October 28, 2004
TORONTO – October 28, 2004 – A patient-led action group that is determined to see chronic pain accorded the same seriousness and priority as other major diseases has proclaimed the first week of November as National Pain Awareness Week.
The slogan of National Pain Awareness Week is “Pain Hurts Canada”.
“Pain hurts hugely in Canada, not only in lost productivity to the Canadian economy but also in significant decreases in quality of life,” says Dr. Céleste Johnston, a pain researcher at McGill University and co-chair of the Canadian Pain Coalition (CPC), a partnership of patient groups, individual patients, physicians and pain researchers from across the country who live with different types of pain every day. “What greatly concerns us is that despite the magnitude of the problem, the suffering of patients is not heard and too often their pain is not taken seriously.”
Millions of Canadians, estimated to be between 17 to 31 per cent of the population, live with debilitating, inadequately treated pain. A recent POLLARA opinion poll reveals that a significant number of chronic pain patients said their pain seriously affected their daily activities and lifestyle. The most common effects of chronic pain on work are absenteeism, reduced productivity, the need to modify working conditions and retirement/stopping work.
Millions of Canadians, estimated to be between 17 to 31 per cent of the population, live with debilitating, inadequately treated pain. A recent POLLARA opinion poll reveals that a significant number of chronic pain patients said their pain seriously affected their daily activities and lifestyle. The most common effects of chronic pain on work are absenteeism, reduced productivity, the need to modify working conditions and retirement/stopping work.
The cost in lost productivity to the Canadian economy is staggering – the estimate ranges up to $12.5 billion. Statistics Canada estimates the cost to treat chronic pain per patient to be $10,000 to $14,000 per year.1 Demands on the health care system will continue to spiral upwards as our population ages.
In celebration of National Pain Awareness Week, the CPC is planning numerous awareness building events and activities across the country. These include pain symposia in Edmonton, Toronto and Halifax, plus “information days” in Maple Ridge, BC, Calgary, Red Deer, Morden / Winnipeg and Rockland/Ottawa .
“Pain can be extremely harmful and result in more complications, longer hospital stays, greater disability and potentially long-term pain,” says Dr. Allan Gordon, Director of the Wasser Pain Management Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, and organizer of a unique seminar called Pain and the Patient that takes place on November 3. The seminar brings together medical experts and pain patients for wide-ranging discussions about the importance of treating pain, managing pain and drug addiction, the use of marijuana in the treatment of chronic pain, and neuropathic pain.
“All of us are intensely committed to the alleviation of pain,” Gordon adds. “Although persistent pain can be difficult to treat, every attempt should be made to do so.”
The highlight of National Pain Awareness Week will be The Gala Fundraising Dinner that takes place on the evening of November 3rd. Well-known entertainment personality, Mary Walsh (THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES), herself a chronic pain sufferer, will serve as Co-Emcee with eminent pain specialist, Dr. Roman Jovey. Noted Canadian businessman, Michael DeGroote, also a chronic pain sufferer, will serve as the Gala’s Honorary Patron.
“The money raised from the gala will be used to fund professional and public education initiatives to tackle the huge toll that pain takes in Canadian society,” says Johnston. “Hopefully, this and the other activities taking place across the country will encourage governments to increase funding for pain research and care for those who are suffering.”
Charter of Pain Patients’ Rights and Responsibilities
In the spirit of changing how patients in pain are treated, the CPC has created a Charter of Pain Patients’ Rights and Responsibilities that emphasizes the rights of patients to have their pain treated and the obligation of doctors and nurses to treat it promptly and effectively.
“One of the underlying causes of unnecessary acute pain is the lack of awareness among patients that they have the right to receive treatment that will keep their pain under control, and help them reclaim their lives,” says Johnston.
The CPC hopes that the National Pain Awareness Week initiative will act as a springboard to:
- Promote sustained change and improvement in pain management in Canada
- Increase public awareness and funding relative to pain
- Change perceptions so that chronic pain is seen as an illness, not a symptom
- Have pain targeted as a health priority
- Increase funding for pain research
- Establish more pain treatment facilities
National Pain Awareness Week is sponsored by Pfizer Canada, Merck Frosst, Purdue Pharma, Michael G. DeGroote and family and the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Pain Research and Care, Janssen-Ortho Inc., Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction, Canadian Consortium on Pain Mechanisms Diagnosis and Management, the Quebec Pain Research Initiative and the Fond de la recherche en santé du Québec.
Canadian Pain Coalition partners include : Canadian Pain Society (CPS), Chronic Pain Association of Canada (CPAC), Canadian Injured Workers Association (CIWA), Canadian Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (CRSD) Network, Promoting Awareness of RSD & CRPS in Canada (PARC), National ME/FM Action Network, FM-CFS Canada Compassion in Action, Association québécoise de la douleur chronique, McGill Centre for Research in Pain, University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain, Canadian Pain in Child Health Society, and the Canadian Institute for the Relief of Pain and Disability (CIRPD).