Pain Education
Prioritise pain education for health care professionals, patients, policymakers, and the general public.
We call for the sharing of best practice, identifying gaps, and proposing recommendations to foster education of healthcare professionals as well as awareness raising and education of patients, policymakers, and the general public on pain, across Europe.
We call on the European Commission to:
- Support national governments in the coordination and sharing of best practice (e.g. patient and healthcare education programmes) and further expand on the existing DG SANTE’s Best Practice Portal to foster information exchange and cross-fertilisation among European health systems on the societal impact of pain, with all relevant stakeholders.
- Support awareness raising activities and information campaigns aimed at educating the wider stakeholder environment to address the societal impact of pain on a holistic level.
- Take into account in its work on health workforce planning (such as the Joint Action on Health Workforce Planning and Forecasting), whether Member States have access to the necessary education and training resources to establish the integrated models of care, and interdisciplinary teams required for the treatment of conditions such as chronic pain.
We call on Member States to:
- Initiate patient education programmes and information campaigns in order to create public awareness of the short and long-term consequences of inadequate access to pain treatment for pain symptoms.
- Promote wider access to pain education within healthcare professions, especially to all those involved with assessing and treating pain.
Our commitments:
- Civil society, healthcare professionals and patient groups share best practices on pain education for patients, healthcare professionals, politicians and the broader community.
- Civil society, healthcare professionals and patient groups continue working on their educational programs and projects targeted to these audiences.
For further information about SIP long-term priorities visit the Joint Statement page here!
Further Information about Pain Education
- SIP 2019: Joint Statement implementation – Pain education
- Interview with Dr. Emma Briggs SIP@EFIC
- Interview with Dr. Andreas Kopf SIP@EFIC
- Video Statement: Francoise Thomas – Pain Education
- Joint Declaration of SIP Portugal 2019: Employment and Education
- SIP 2017, Working Group 1: Andreas Kopf – Education: Do we still need it?
- National initiatives United Kingdom: Better education on pain management – press release
- SIP 2012, Working Group 4: Kris Vissers – Education and research Programmes on pain management in EU
- SIP 2012, Working Group 4: Begoña García Cepeda – Education in pain
- SIP 2012, Working Group 4: Manuela Monleón / Marta Pisano – Developing pain education for nurses by nurses
- SIP 2011, Workshop 2: Jan Dobrogowski – Can education in pain improve the treatment of pain?