Background:

One of the most challenging aspects of the Pain- Opioid Epidemic is the ongoing demonization of people embroiled in the challenge of experiencing  acute and chronic physical and emotional pain and individuals dependent on  opioids. These are individuals biologically altered by pain/ addiction. It is clear that patients in pain deserve compassionate care just like any other patient physicians treat, and stigmatizing patients who require opioid therapy is often a barrier to optimal treatment.

 

Stigma is one of the meanest and most difficult aspects of addiction because it makes it harder for individuals and families to deal with their problems and get the help they need. Society imposes stigma - and its damage - on addicts and their families because many of us still believe that addiction is a character flaw or weakness that probably can't be cured. The stigma against people with addictions is so deeply rooted that it continues even in the face of the scientific evidence that addiction is a treatable disease and even when we know people in our families and communities living wonderful lives in long-term recovery.

 

The Challenge:

Confronting stigma associated with pain and opioid dependence: ensuring that patients in pain and those suffering with opioid dependence/ addiction receive the care they need.

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• Addressing and clarifying responsibility of the medical profession

• challenge the media and their reporting of

• Public campaign to better explain the challenges

• Promoting the pain patient Bill of Rights

• Promoting the opioid dependent  individual’s “Bill of Rights”

 

Patient suffering with acute and chronic pain

Patients suffering with opioid substance use disorders/ addiction

 

 

Patient suffering with acute and chronic pain:

 

Patients in pain deserve compassionate care just like any other patient physicians treat, and stigmatizing patients who require opioid therapy is often a barrier to optimal treatment. In medicine, we do not use terms such as “malingerer” or “drug seeker” because these terms carry with them damaging psychological stigma. Patients who need care are simply “patients,” and we should seek to change the tone of the debate toward more attention on multidisciplinary, patient-centered approaches to pain management and ensuring that evidence-based alternative pain management treatments and strategies are covered by insurance, while supporting opioid-based therapies when clinically appropriate and effective.

 

 

Patients suffering with opioid use disorder/ addiction:

Substance use disorders are medical conditions, and reducing the stigma surrounding these medical conditions is a particularly important component of drug policy reform—one in which every American can play a part. As we have worked to help guide the millions of Americans who suffer from substance use disorders into recovery and support the millions more who are already in long-term recovery, we have learned that how we describe or refer to substance use disorders can have an important effect on outcomes. Research demonstrates that the use of stigmatizing words like “addict” can discourage individuals from seeking help. Additionally, using such terms reinforces the idea that someone with a substance use disorder is exhibiting a willful choice rather than suffering from a recognized medical condition. Researchers also note that identifying an individual with a substance use disorder as a “substance abuser” evokes less sympathy than if the individual is described as having a disease. Avoiding these terms—and thereby reducing the stigma faced by those with substance use disorders—can play an important role in encouraging these individuals to seek help at an earlier stage in the disease.

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The medical profession:

 

We need to speak out against stigma and stand up for what we know is right. Patients in pain deserve care and compassion, not judgment. Treating pain is among the most difficult—and most common—reasons patients come to us. As physicians, we are often under pressure to “satisfy a patient’s pain.” Sometimes this requires prescribing an opioid. But caring also means sometimes saying no and recommending an alternative course of treatment—no matter how difficult that may be.

An AMA Viewpoints post by AMA President Steven J. Stack, M  2/17/2016,

 

 

Positive incentives to promote physician education and public awareness, useful tools that physicians can use at the point-of-care to support medical decision-making, concerted attention to increasing access to quality addiction treatment.

 

• Individuals can rate their experience with their physicians associated with attitude of the health care system and providers. (The challenge of rating)

• Avoid the  use terms such as “malingerer” or “drug seeker” because these terms carry with them damaging psychological stigma. Patients who need care are simply “patients,”

• Establish bill of rights for individuals suffering with pain or opioid related challenges

 

 

Public awareness:

Montgomery County should create a comprehensive day-long symposium aimed at public education around overdose awareness. This symposium should offer different tracks, including healthcare professionals, educators, family and friends of those in recovery, law enforcement, among others.

 

 

The media:

We can challenge the media, entertainment, and other social organizations that may have a negative approach.

 

• The media’s stories about how the opioid crisis cuts short promising lives are renewing public attention, commitment, and concern.

• Viewing substance use disorders as a chronic disease that waxes and wanes, not as a moral failing, may help overcome stigma that prevents affected people from seeking treatment.

• Encouraging public dialogue that refers to a “person with a substance use disorder” (instead of “addict”) and “person in recovery” (instead of “former addict”) can medicalize what many still view as primarily a criminal problem.

 

 

Goal:

 

Ensuring that patients in pain and those suffering with opioid dependence/ addiction are not stigmatized and are treated respectfully as individuals and patients.

 

Take Action

 

Get Personal

Learn how stigma impacts individuals suffering with Substance Use 

 

Get Social

Help change the culture associated with stigmatizing individuals 

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Get Political

Respond to politicians, public officials and others who stigmatize individuals suffering with addiction