"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
-Howard Zinn - from his autobiography, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train."
We believe that pain research needs to become the highest priority. Our best hope for improving medical care for acute and chronic pain is to significantly increase the amount of pain research that is being done. Pain affects an increasingly large proportion of our society and is responsible for a significant number of lost days at work and lost productivity. Chronic and acute pain is a worldwide problem, and will only become more of an issue in the future with the aging population. In contrast, federal funding for pain research has significantly decreased in the past ten years, and has declined nine percent a year since 2003. Despite the significance of the problem, pain research currently represents only less than one percent of all grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Clearly, an alternate source of funding for pain research is needed. The Pain Research Foundation seeks to close the gap by funding pain research in order to make advances in the medical care of people in acute and chronic pain.
We are dedicated to patient advocacy and committed to increasing the amount of pain research done every year. Our intention is to increase awareness about the issues of acute and chronic pain and communicate the findings of the latest research to the general public. We believe that people in pain deserve to be treated with kindness, compassion, and consideration for their feelings. We stand in solidarity with those who are pain, because an injury to one is an injury to all. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Our philosophy is that all individuals have value and that everyone’s life matters. We believe that each person has unique gifts and talents and that all people deserve to have quality service with respect and dignity. We believe that people in pain should be treated with respect and dignity regardless of gender, race, age, socioeconomic status, marital status, sexual orientation, religion, or ethnic background. Patients in pain have the right to have the same amount of confidentiality as anyone else. In the same way, the identities of those who donate to the Pain Research Foundation will not be released without their consent, and their personal information will not be given or sold to a third party.
For more information on the significance of the problem and the impact of acute and chronic pain on lost days at work and lost productivity, click here - http://www.painmed.org/PatientCenter/Cost_of_Pain.aspx
For more information on the lack of funding for pain research by the National Institutes for Health (NIH), click here - http://www.ampainsoc.org/press/2008/downloads/20081211.pdf