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WHY ARE SO MANY IN ARMENIA REFUSED PAINKILLERS? NEW CAMPAIGN TO 'STOP THE PAIN' LAUNCHED IN ARMENIA
10.09.2013 23:43 epress.am
Thousands of people in Armenia suffer from life-limiting and chronic
illness. The lack of access to oral morphine for pain relief puts
those patients in unnecessary pain.
Pain and death are unavoidable, but it is a person's right to have
access to pain relief or palliative care. The public is obliged to
respect and ensure the right of a person in need of palliative care
and to give him the opportunity to live a dignified life, according
to a statement issued by an alliance of individuals and experts and
Armenian and international organizations, which, supported by the
Open Society Foundation-Armenia, has planned several events as part
of a campaign called Stop the Pain, organized to mark World Hospice
and Palliative Care Day on Oct. 6.
According to the campaign website: "The question of why patients
are not properly treated and continue to suffer, persists. The main
problem is likely not a doctor's mercilessness or lack of knowledge
and experience. The problem is the stereotype against narcotic drugs
and the fear that the quantity of people using the drugs can increase
because of prescription for these means. Opiophobia has developed in
our society. This is one important explanation, but nothing compared
to the huge quantity of drug trafficking. This is exactly why power
structures check medical institutions and healthcare workers.
"Additionally, one must fill out a number of registration forms and
health certificates for a single injection in postoperative period.
Such an injection can be made only in the presence of physician. After
that, many notes are taken in different documents, committees
convene to destroy vials while people using drugs still have access
to narcotic drugs. A patient suffering from severe pains remains
without a painkiller. It is not acceptable."
The events planned are as follows:
Oct. 11: press conference in Yerevan, Media Center, 12 pm, and
a televised segment in Vanadzor where various experts will speak
and present the importance of the issue and future tasks Oct. 12:
film screening and discussion, 2 pm, Congress Hotel. The film is
fictional, describing an elderly couple's love story and is on the
issue of palliative care. In Russian with English subtitles.
Oct. 15: an informational event from 4 to 6 pm at the corner of
Abovyan and Sayat-Nova streets in Yerevan, where brochures will be
distributed to passers-by; a choir will perform classical music; and
as a symbol of pain and torture a "chair of pain" will be on display.
Organizations who've joined the campaign are the International
Palliative Care Initiative; Pain Management and Palliative Care
Association; Women's Resource Center of Armenia; Real World, Real
People NGO; Armenian Center for Health Initiatives NGO; and Public
Information and Need of Knowledge (PINK Armenia) NGO.
10.09.2013 23:43 epress.am
Thousands of people in Armenia suffer from life-limiting and chronic
illness. The lack of access to oral morphine for pain relief puts
those patients in unnecessary pain.
Pain and death are unavoidable, but it is a person's right to have
access to pain relief or palliative care. The public is obliged to
respect and ensure the right of a person in need of palliative care
and to give him the opportunity to live a dignified life, according
to a statement issued by an alliance of individuals and experts and
Armenian and international organizations, which, supported by the
Open Society Foundation-Armenia, has planned several events as part
of a campaign called Stop the Pain, organized to mark World Hospice
and Palliative Care Day on Oct. 6.
According to the campaign website: "The question of why patients
are not properly treated and continue to suffer, persists. The main
problem is likely not a doctor's mercilessness or lack of knowledge
and experience. The problem is the stereotype against narcotic drugs
and the fear that the quantity of people using the drugs can increase
because of prescription for these means. Opiophobia has developed in
our society. This is one important explanation, but nothing compared
to the huge quantity of drug trafficking. This is exactly why power
structures check medical institutions and healthcare workers.
"Additionally, one must fill out a number of registration forms and
health certificates for a single injection in postoperative period.
Such an injection can be made only in the presence of physician. After
that, many notes are taken in different documents, committees
convene to destroy vials while people using drugs still have access
to narcotic drugs. A patient suffering from severe pains remains
without a painkiller. It is not acceptable."
The events planned are as follows:
Oct. 11: press conference in Yerevan, Media Center, 12 pm, and
a televised segment in Vanadzor where various experts will speak
and present the importance of the issue and future tasks Oct. 12:
film screening and discussion, 2 pm, Congress Hotel. The film is
fictional, describing an elderly couple's love story and is on the
issue of palliative care. In Russian with English subtitles.
Oct. 15: an informational event from 4 to 6 pm at the corner of
Abovyan and Sayat-Nova streets in Yerevan, where brochures will be
distributed to passers-by; a choir will perform classical music; and
as a symbol of pain and torture a "chair of pain" will be on display.
Organizations who've joined the campaign are the International
Palliative Care Initiative; Pain Management and Palliative Care
Association; Women's Resource Center of Armenia; Real World, Real
People NGO; Armenian Center for Health Initiatives NGO; and Public
Information and Need of Knowledge (PINK Armenia) NGO.