January 2007 E-Newsletter

ASPI Annual Meeting in Boston - Registration Begins Soon

SCCPI Program Reaches Social Workers

Promoting Pain Awareness in New Mexico

ASPI Quality Improvement Program Adds Two More States

Website Offers Self Management for Chronic Pain

ASPI 2007 ANNUAL MEETING IN BOSTON- REGISTRATION BEGINS SOON

Registration for the Alliance of State Pain Initiatives' (ASPI) 18th Annual Meeting will be available soon. Look for an announcement in this E-Newsletter or for the conference brochure in the mail. The meeting will be held June 21-23, 2007 at the Radisson Hotel Boston, a prime downtown Boston location in Park Square just a block from the Boston Common. The ASPI’s annual meetings are widely recognized for their exceptional educational offerings and relaxed forums to share ideas and learn new approaches to improve pain management. This year’s meeting features an especially impressive lineup of plenary speakers who are nationally recognized authorities in pain management and palliative care:

Ira Byock, MD
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
“Advocacy and Activism: It's Time to Make Pain History”

Daniel B. Carr, MD
Tufts-New England Medical Center
“The Culture of Pain Care--Transformation by Information?”

June L. Dahl, PhD
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Co-founder of the Wisconsin Pain Initiative
“Pain Management Then and Now: Reflections on the Past Twenty Years”

Georgia M. Decker, MS, RN, CS-ANP, CN, AOCN
President, Oncology Nursing Society
Nurse practitioner, Integrative Care
“Complementary and Alternative (CAM) Therapies in Pain Management Integrative Care”

Arthur G. Lipman, PharmD, FASHP
University of Utah Health Sciences Center
“Emerging Trends in Pain Management”

SCCPI PROGRAM REACHES SOCIAL WORKERS

The So. California Cancer Pain Initiative (SCCPI) completed a very successful educational program, “Promoting Excellence in Pain Management & Palliative Care for Social Workers”. The project was made possible, in part, through funding from the ASPI / Lance Armstrong Foundation partnership to improve cancer pain management. Over 135 enthusiastic social workers from a variety of health care settings across the country attended the program. SCCPI hopes to create a network of health social workers positioned to more effectively address pain and suffering for patients and their families. Persons with cancer and other illnesses often rely upon social workers as their primary mental health professional, and social workers become their voice for psychosocial-spiritual concerns in a fragmented health system. The overwhelming success of the program - 99 percent of attendees said they would recommend the course to others – has encouraged SCCPI to expand its “Promoting Excellence” course for 2007 and include two days of didactic and experiential exercises and a 6-month outcome survey to gauge the long-term effects of these important educational efforts. For more information about SCCPI visit, http://sccpi.coh.org/

PROMOTING PAIN AWARENESS IN NEW MEXICO

The New Mexico Pain Initiative (NMPI) wraps up a year of impressive public and professional outreach activities to broaden the understanding of pain management. The activities are part of the NMPI’s “Power Over Pain” campaign, sponsored by the American Pain Foundation, and the national office of the ASPI. Members of the NMPI, led by Nancy Wertz and Walter Forman, gave numerous presentations, conducted train-the-trainer programs, and exhibited pain information at health fairs, senior centers and public libraries. They also successfully secured a Governor’s proclamation of “Power Over Pain” month for February, and used the occasion to educate state lawmakers about the problem of untreated pain and its consequences.

ASPI QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM ADDS TWO MORE STATES

The ASPI’s acclaimed institutional and practice improvement program, called the “Pain Improvement Partnership”, is currently underway through the State Pain Initiatives in Missouri and Indiana. Since 2001, over 100 health care facilities in twelve states have participated in the intensive 10-month program. Earlier this month, Missouri held its first conference for its twelve participating facilities. Indiana’s first conference is scheduled for the end of this week. Overall, the ASPI’s program has shown positive increases in the facilities’ structural elements necessary to support effective pain management as well as decreases in the percentage of patients who reported pain in the previous 24 hours. The programs in Missouri and Indiana are part of the ASPI / Lance Armstrong Foundation partnership to improve cancer pain management. For more information about the program, visit http://www.aspi.wisc.edu/education.htm

WEBSITE OFFERS SELF-MANAGEMENT FOR CHRONIC PAIN

A new website, PainACTION www.painaction.com, is designed to educate and empower people with chronic pain by offering access to personalized pain management strategies. Features include: an online pain journal to track pain and print reports; information about evidence-based pain treatments and research findings; interactive tools for self-assessment and self-help; peer stories; and the latest pain-related news. The site is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Endo Pharmaceuticals.

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