Pain Research, Education & Policy

Life Before Death

June 7, 2011

by Pamela Katz Ressler, MS-PREP, RN, HN-BC, PREP-Aired blog moderator and administrator, Program in Pain Research, Education and Policy (PREP) at Tufts University School of Medicine

The global burden of pain is immense.  Pain is universal; including all constructs of ethnicity, nationality, culture, race, socioeconomic status, age and gender.  Although pain is ubiquitous, it is woefully under-treated globally.  The International Association of  the Study of Pain , along with other prominent pain organizations such as The Mayday Fund, the Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice, the Union for International Cancer Control, have joined with the Lien Foundation by co-sponsoring a series of 50 short documentary films, released for viewing each week beginning in May 2011, highlighting the international epidemic of the under-treatment of pain.  The project, Life Before Death, will culminate with the release of a feature film in late 2011, followed by a one-hour TV documentary. 

We welcome your comments on the overall Life Before Death project or the specific short films, which we will highlight on the Tufts University Pain Research, Education and Policy Program’s PREP-Aired blog each week.  Let’s start a dialog, that will be heard round the world, affirming the right of all people to have access to effective pain treatment.

Click here to watch the first short film of the Life Before Death project: Conspiracy of Silence

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: IASP, Institute for Palliative Medicine, Lien Foundation, Life Before Death, Mayday Fund, MS-PREP, Pain, Pain Research, Pain Reserach Education Policy, PREP, Tufts, Tufts University School of Medicine, Union for Interantional Cancer Control.