We all know that pain is under treated around the world. But why? There are many reasons for this less than perfect situation. I start from our own group, physicians. There is evidence that most of vet. school students get more training about pain management than medical students. The same level of imperfection continues in residency training programs and post graduation training opportunities. For example in Canada, Family Physicians take the main load of patient care, including pain management, but there is no official pain management training in family medicine residency programs. There is no post graduate pain fellowship available to family physicians in Canada, except for some rare opportunities.
On the other hand there are about 30 percent of Canadians who are suffering from some sort of chronic pain in their lives. So this discussion leads form our trainings to policies. As we can see, there has not been enough attention paid to pain management when it comes to policy making. The other side of story is the huge number of patients who are suffering from pain. They should start to believe in their human rights and speak for it trough all legal means available to them. But the first step is to recognize this fact by all patients, doctors and policy makers: PAIN MANAGEMENT IS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE.
Chronic pain is a CHRONIC DISEASE. Chronic pain affects all aspects of a person’s life. As a result it is impossible for the pain patient to live a normal life, be happy and productive the way they love to without proper pain management. It is a basic human right to be happy, free to work and be productive for our family and help to shape a better society. Without proper pain management, non of these would be possible. So we should all work together for our basic human rights: CHRONIC PAIN MANAGEMENT.
Let us share our ideas to work towards this important human rights issue.
Dr. Kevin ROD
