At the end of June 2018, after thirty-four years at the Center for Practical Bioethics, Myra Christopher retired from the Center, at which time its board of directors and leadership decided not to continue to support the PAINS Project. Several options for ways to continue PAINS’ important work were explored. Ultimately, it was decided through a non-financial agreement between the Center for Practical Bioethics and the Academy of Integrative Pain Management to transfer the PAINS Project, its resources and collateral materials to AIPM as of August 1, 2018. The Center for Practical Bioethics is enthusiastic about this transition and believes that the timing is right for change.
Statements from the Center for Practical Bioethics and the Academy of Integrative Pain Management on the transition of the PAINS Project (Effective August 1, 2018)
John G. Carney, President/CEO of the Center for Practical Bioethics
The leadership that AIPM has exhibited in the complex arena of pain care treatment ensures that the investment the Center has made over the last decade will continue and flourish. The Academy’s commitment to excellence in interdisciplinary, patient-centered and evidence-based care with virtually every stakeholder group provides the confidence the Center needed in transitioning our work as Myra Christopher retires.
Those living with chronic pain rely on strong, respected and accomplished organizations to advance person-centered, integrative models of care by uniting clinicians in the fight against chronic pain. AIPM fits that profile and we are pleased and grateful that AIPM has agreed to honor the mission of the PAINS project and the decade long charitable efforts of the Center in this duty of care to vulnerable patients.
Clay Jackson, President of the Board of the Academy of Integrative Pain Management
At AIPM, we are grateful for the tremendous work that has been accomplished by everyone involved in the PAINS Project, and we feel that important milestones such as the publication of the National Pain Strategy would have been impossible to achieve without their commitment to patient advocacy and sound medical evidence.
As the only professional organization comprising members of every discipline that treats persons with pain, AIPM is uniquely positioned to continue to serve as the central repository of information regarding best practices in integrative pain care, and as a powerful force for advocating for making those treatments available to all patients.
I am 63 years old and have had Crohn’s disease since age 24. It was diagnosed after perforation of appendix’s and small bowel. I have continued to have pain that has been Chronic but did not take anything stronger than Advil, unless in the hospital for 4 other surgeries. In 1993 I had life altering pain, and was diagnosed with Fibrosis/ which is now called Fibromyalgia. I have required pain medicine, for the past 10 years and that only enables me to get out of bed. My pain is horrible, and it’s 24-7. I really detest the way I am perceived and treated when picking up my pain medication. I have had to provide urine samples, bring in my bottle and have my pills counted, and when going to the Emergency Room in horrific pain due to a flare up of Crohn’s disease, I was only given Tylenol and Benadryl. This is totally opposite from the way I was treated before the Opioid Epedemic was so televised. Now I live in fear everyday that my pain medication will not be renewed, and I will not be able to even function or live a life that would have any quality to it at all.
I really feel angry at the people who misuse and sell their pain medicine, but I am also angry at health care workers who judge those of us who do have to live in chronic pain, like we are druggies trying to get high. I Never get high or even pain free! It just gives me a few hours out of the day when I can get necessary things done. I think there should be a place for physicians and nurses to go that educates them about diseases that require medication for pain, that may cause dependence but NOT addiction.