A person who follows me and has read, and commented on many of my posts has made some comments that show they do not understand my advocacy work, or my story, and I need to clear this up.
Good to know the W.H.O. have put out new guidelines, & after having a brief read, I note they say in part there is "a focus on balanced national policies for controlled medicines and improving access to essential pain relief." Although I do wonder, in those countries such as America & Australia, where opioid pain killers are so hard to obtain for legitimate & responsible chronic pain patients, whether these guidelines are actually enforceable, what authority or national organisation is responsible for enforcing them, & which demographic of people in reality has the funds to take their Federal Gov't to court on this issue if their rights are ignored.
many of us, myself included, are grateful beyond words that you are shouting from the rooftops that we matter, our quality of life matters, and that opioids are not the monster they are made out to be.
Thank God the W.H.O. published new guidelines in May. And the nations are NOT incompliance with having enough pain medication available.
Do you have a link?
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/B09419
Thank you for the link, David!
DPF just did another post about it right here on Substack. If you don't see it, let me know. I will look for it now....
Good to know the W.H.O. have put out new guidelines, & after having a brief read, I note they say in part there is "a focus on balanced national policies for controlled medicines and improving access to essential pain relief." Although I do wonder, in those countries such as America & Australia, where opioid pain killers are so hard to obtain for legitimate & responsible chronic pain patients, whether these guidelines are actually enforceable, what authority or national organisation is responsible for enforcing them, & which demographic of people in reality has the funds to take their Federal Gov't to court on this issue if their rights are ignored.
Excellent article 👌
neen, your advocacy work is so important.
many of us, myself included, are grateful beyond words that you are shouting from the rooftops that we matter, our quality of life matters, and that opioids are not the monster they are made out to be.
you have taught me so much.
I feel empowered because of you.
thank you.
The psycho-social programs, the pain education programs, and combinations such as CFT do not help people with chronic primary pain either.
None of these programs are superior to having empathetic support and merely remaining active through an interest or hobby, such as playing cards.
Whether primary or secondary chronic pain, these programs need to be seen for what they are: purple hat protocols with zero robust evidence.
Looking forward to your next article
You write so well! How did you go with the GP that you had to see sans your regular GP?