SEPTEMBER PAIN AWARENESS MONTH CAMPAIGN OVERVIEW

Campaign Dates: September 1, 2024 – September 30, 2024

September 2024, the Pain Collaborative to Advance Equitable Value-Based Solutions conducted its first collective campaign to raise awareness of chronic pain by leveraging the unique strength of the Pain Collaborative’s infrastructure that includes leaders and experts representing people with lived experience, healthcare providers (representing an “ideal” interdisciplinary pain team), academia, public and private insurers, purchasers of healthcare, industry, innovators and more.

Chronic pain is the #1 cause of disability globally. It negatively affects a person’s quality of life, as well as impacts social environments and mental health.

Nearly 20 million Americans have pain that prevents life activities and work. Individuals need access to a wide range of effective treatments to manage their pain. Further, with so many non-opioid options available and encouraged, there is a deep disconnect in the translation of this multimodal model to individuals with pain, especially those who are underserved. Many known barriers exist and stakeholders must work together to expedite access to quality care.

The key messaging was around:

• Pain awareness: Promoting pain awareness increases understanding and helps reduce stigma against individuals living with pain and providers caring for them. Pain is often called “the invisible illness”.
• Importance of equitable, value-based pain care: Promoting the position that all individuals, regardless of their background, gender, race, sexuality, etc., should have access to an integrated and integrative model of pain care focused on improving outcomes, where providers work together to treat the whole person.
• Connecting more dots among Pain Collaborative Participants: Promoting, sharing, and posting about the ongoing work of participating organizations. Sharing research on social media, as well as sharing and creating and posting media to this end.

CAMPAIGN HASHTAGS

Collaborative Campaign Hashtag: #RightCareAtTheRightTime (Please use this hashtag when participating.)

Other Suggested Hashtags: #PainCollaborative #PainAwarenessMonth, #ChronicPain, #PainAwareness, #LivingWithPain, #WholeHealth, #RealPainStories #IntegrativePainManagement #BioPsychoSocialCare #MoveAwayFromPain

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