In 2010 Global Healthy Living Foundation organized a nationwide campaign called Taking Charge of Pain. Aiming to improve quality of life for people with chronic pain, the campaign brought together more than 9,000 patients in eight cities.
The program was designed for patients with different types of chronic pain, their caregivers and local advocacy groups. A team of experts including a physician, a complementary and alternative medicine doctor, an insurance specialist and health psychologist led a two and half hour discussion about different ways of coping with pain, dealing with access to care issues and changing a person’s mental approach to living with chronic pain.
An Audience Response System was used to receive immediate feedback from the participants and collect data which has been used for additional educational programs.
Louis Tharp, Executive Director of the Global Healthy Living Foundation, commenting on a survey derived from the data said that “the results showed the gap between physician’s and patient’s expectations when it comes to treating chronic pain.” The data also showed a 70% incidence of drug switching by health insurance companies – a number backed up by GHLF’s 2010 survey of more than 10,000 patients.
The aggregated survey results are presented below. If you would like to learn more about the program, please visit the project’s web site at www.takingchargeofpain.org
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To download the survey results in PDF format please click here