Actress Jennifer Grey Spearheads National Initiative to Promote Effective
Communication Between People Living With Pain and Healthcare Professionals
Stamford, CT — September 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Movie icon, dancing star and patient advocate Jennifer Grey has joined forces with Partners Against Pain® to launch a new national initiative called Hands On Approach for Pain Management. The program highlights the importance of open and honest communication between people living with chronic pain and their healthcare professionals in developing an individualized treatment plan.
"Pain is part of life, but suffering doesn’t have to be," says Grey, who waged her own battle with chronic pain for more than 10 years and saw it impact her career and personal life. "No one should suffer in silence. I want people to know that communicating about pain is an important step to identifying the best treatment options for you."
According to the Institute of Medicine, over 100 million adults in the United States suffer from chronic pain conditions¹. Each person’s pain is unique and different, which is why effective communication is crucial to achieve proper pain management.
"There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach for pain management. Treatment needs to be individualized, and may require multiple, integrative therapies," says Micke Brown, BSN, RN, Director of Communications, American Pain Foundation. "If untreated or undertreated, pain can lead to complications such as reduced function and mobility, a weakened immune system, as well as anxiety and depression²."
A new national survey reveals that patients and their healthcare professionals may not be communicating as effectively as they think they are when it comes to pain³:
* Patients indicate that they aren’t fully preparing for appointments, with only 19 percent using a pain journal to track their experiences, 35 percent researching their condition online, and 10 percent doing nothing at all.
* Healthcare professionals expressed a desire for patients to share more information during appointments, including expectations for treatment (71 percent); how pain is affecting their everyday lives (68 percent); and what the pain feels like (54 percent).
The Hands On Approach for Pain Management initiative that Grey is spearheading offers a range of practical information and tools to help improve the way patients and healthcare professionals share information about pain, including a downloadable pain journal; guides with tips for getting the most out of each medical appointment; and video features with Grey on communicating effectively about pain.
Hands On Approach for Pain Management Photo Contest
Another key element of the campaign is an online photo contest that gives people living with chronic pain an opportunity to portray their personal experiences with the condition so that others can learn from their journey. Final entries are now displayed on the Partners Against Pain web site. A "Critic’s Choice" winner will be selected by a judging panel and receive a grand prize of a ‘meet and greet’ with Grey.
The public can also cast their votes for their favorite photo to determine the "People’s Choice" winner, who will receive a Ticketmaster gift certificate. The public voting period ends on October 14, 2011.
For more information about the campaign and the online photo contest, please visit www.partnersagainstpain.com.
About Partners Against Pain®
Partners Against Pain is a national education program provided by Purdue Pharma L.P. The program helps patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals alleviate unnecessary suffering by advancing standards of pain care through education and advocacy.
About the Survey
The survey was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation – Infogroup/ORC, a national research firm, on behalf of Purdue Pharma L.P.
Results of the Hands On Approach for Pain Management survey were based on:
* Telephone interviews among 750 adults (18+) who indicated they experience chronic pain. Interviews were conducted by ORC International using their US telephone lines from June 1 – June 16, 2011. The margin of error for the 750 interviews is approximately 3.2 percent with a 95 percent confidence level.
* Online interviews of 500 family practitioners (FPs), general practitioners (GPs), and internal medicine physicians (IMs) (300); physician assistants (PAs) (100); and registered nurses/nurse practitioners (RNs/NPs) (100) from June 1 – June 7, 2011. The margin of error for the 500 interviews is approximately 4.5 percent with a 95 percent confidence level.
¹ IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2011. Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
² Chapman, C Richard. "Suffering: the contributions of persistent pain." Lancet 353 (1999): 2233-237.
³ Hands On Approach for Pain Management survey, patient and healthcare professional data set. 2011.
Media Contact
Shirley Johnson
Purdue Pharma L.P.
(203) 588-7681
Mike Meo
Cooney/Waters Group
(212) 886-2204
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