W.Va Group Seeks Pain Treatment Awareness

By MICHELLE SAXTON

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – About 70 percent of West Virginians suffer monthly from moderate to severe pain and health experts say they hope to provide more awareness of people’s choices for pain treatment and end-of-life care.

“Pain is common. It has a huge impact on individuals, their families, communities, society,” said Dr. Perry Fine, anesthesiology professor at the University of Utah and vice president of medical affairs for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

Fine was in Charleston Friday to speak at the first West Virginia Pain Summit sponsored by a statewide coalition of pain management advocates.

During the summit, members of the West Virginia Pain Initiative released results of a statewide survey conducted earlier this year which showed that arthritis and back pain are the two most common causes of pain.

The finding shows that while focusing on end-of-life and cancer pain is important, other causes of pain should also be considered, said James Keresztury, the initiative’s coordinator.

The survey, based on 401 telephone interviews with a 34 percent response rate, showed that more than 75 percent of those surveyed did not seek pain treatment because they feared the underlying cause of the pain and more than 70 percent did not seek help because they did not realize that pain should be treated as a separate condition.

About two-thirds of those surveyed said they were unaware of resources that could help them.

“It is obvious that area people need more information about managing their pain and we want to make sure treatment is available and those in pain know where to find help,” Keresztury said.

Families need to know that pain can be managed at home, and that resources such as Hospice are available, said Dr. Robert D’Alessandri, vice president for health sciences at West Virginia University in Morgantown.

West Virginia is now among the top five states for its policies on treating pain, said Dr. Alvin Moss, director of the West Virginia Center for End of Life Care at WVU. A recent policy change by West Virginia’s boards of Medicine and Osteopathy enhances the education of health care professionals on how to prescribe pain medication, he said.

“There’s nothing in West Virginia policy to prevent doctors from prescribing adequate amounts of pain medicine to control pain,” Moss said.

Also Friday, Moss and other health officials announced that the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation is providing $500,000 to continue efforts through the West Virginia Center for End-of-Life Care, while the National Institute for Nursing Research is committing $300,000 for a study on how patients’ and families’ wishes are addressed regarding end-of-life care.

It is important for people to have advanced directives to provide a clear understanding of how they want to live their final days, said West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Secretary Martha Walker, who issued a proclamation from the governor declaring October “Pain Awareness Month.”

Walker spoke of her father, who received Hospice care for several months before his death.

“They provided wonderful, loving care and a support for the family as he went through the different stages of his illness and provided medication that allowed him and the family to manage his pain,” Walker said. “So he was relatively able to enjoy and have a quality of life to the end.”