To educate and advocate for multidisciplinary pain management, including opioids where appropriate, and ensure that an individualised, multimodal approach is accessible to all chronic pain patients.
Each person’s pain condition is unique, there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to pain management. Each person’s pain management plan must also be individualised and unique.
We advocate for the use of opioid pain-relieving medications where appropriate. We are NOT “pro opioid”. We are PRO proper pain relief.
Opioids should never be a first line treatment, and most people do not have pain of a severity, intensity and constancy to warrant long term opioid therapy. However, for those who live with progressive, painful, incurable diseases, or injury, opioid pain-relieving medications are an essential part of their pain management toolbox.
In well selected and well-monitored people, opioids provide safe and effective pain relief for severe, intractable pain.
Effective chronic pain management includes, but is not limited to, physical therapy, mindfulness and meditation, CBT and ACT therapy, graded exposure to activity, and disease-modifying and pain-relieving medications.
Opioids are, and must always be, a treatment of last resort, but for many people, opioid pain-relieving medications provide the cornerstone treatment upon which ALL other therapies are be built. These may include education, psychological therapies, physical therapy and support to make lifestyle changes.
We aim to remove the stigma surrounding chronic pain and increase awareness and empathy for those living with chronic pain conditions. Chronic pain patients, particularly those with high impact chronic pain, are often disabled by pain and are among the most vulnerable members of our community.
Additionally, we aim to reduce the stigma surrounding long term opioid therapy for chronic pain, and combat opioid hysteria by promoting recent and accurate scientific studies. Long-term opioid therapy has been shown to reduce pain, reduce disability and improve quality of life for some people.
Further, we aim to end the conflation of the terms “addiction” and “dependence”. Chronic pain patients rarely become addicted to their opioid pain-relieving medications, with recent multiple, large scale studies putting the addiction rate for chronic pain patients at far less than 1%.
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