SLS 15RS-1844 ORIGINAL
2015 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 116
BY SENATOR HEITMEIER
LEGIS POWERS/FUNCTIONS. Recognizes the month of September 2015 as Pain
Awareness Month in Louisiana.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To recognize the month of September 2015 as "Pain Awareness Month" in Louisiana.
3 WHEREAS, over one hundred million American adults suffer from chronic pain,
4 including millions with debilitating conditions such as chronic lower back pain,
5 fibromyalgia, and arthritis; and
6 WHEREAS, chronic pain costs America up to six hundred thirty-five billion dollars
7 a year in added health costs and lost productivity, including billions of dollars in Medicaid
8 costs; and
9 WHEREAS, chronic pain is a major public health problem and hidden driver of
10 rising health care costs; and
11 WHEREAS, significant barriers to adequate pain care exist, including regulatory,
12 legal, institutional, financial, and geographical barriers, and as a result, millions of
13 Americans settle for inadequate pain care; and
14 WHEREAS, pain and pain treatment, represent a national challenge and cultural
15 modifications are needed to better prevent, assess, treat, and understand pain of all types; and
16 WHEREAS, these findings regarding chronic pain were made by the Institute of
17 Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences in its landmark report issued in 2011,
18 Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and
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SLS 15RS-1844 ORIGINAL
1 Research; and
2 WHEREAS, the IOM report includes a number of recommendations to improve pain
3 care, education, and research; and
4 WHEREAS, the IOM report found that significant savings could be achieved through
5 better treatment of acute pain, such as a reduction in workers' compensation costs, an end
6 to significant lost tax revenues, and a reduced burden of the societal costs of opioid abuse
7 and misuse; and
8 WHEREAS, the IOM report urges that the nation should develop a comprehensive
9 plan that heightens awareness about pain and its health consequences, emphasizes the
10 prevention of pain, improves the assessment of pain and plans for management of that pain,
11 uses public health strategies to educate the public, and addresses the disparities in the
12 experience of pain among Americans; and
13 WHEREAS, by naming a Pain Awareness Month in the state, the Louisiana State
14 Senate is taking a positive step in heightening awareness of pain, particularly chronic pain,
15 and its health consequences; and
16 WHEREAS, chronic pain is a serious health problem and the appropriate agencies
17 of state government should examine how the state can improve the health and productivity
18 of its citizens and reduce personal and government health care expenditures by implementing
19 the recommendations of the IOM report.
20 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
21 does hereby recognize the month of September 2015 as "Pain Awareness Month" in
22 Louisiana.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Christopher D. Adams.
DIGEST
SR 116 Original 2015 Regular Session Heitmeier
Recognizes the month of September 2015 as Pain Awareness Month in Louisiana.
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