Our Mission

Our mission:

To educate and advocate for multidisciplinary pain management, including opioids, and ensure that an individualised, multimodal approach is accessible to all chronic pain patients. 

Each person’s pain condition is unique, there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to pain management, and each person’s pain management plan must also be individualised and unique.

We advocate for the use of opioid pain-relieving medications where appropriate.  Opioids should never be a first line treatment, however, opioid pain-relieving medications are an essential part of the pain management toolbox and provide safe and effective pain management for many patients who suffer severe, intractable pain.

Effective chronic pain management includes, but is not limited to, physical therapy, mindfulness and meditation, CBT and ACT therapy, graded exposure to activity, and disease-modifying and pain-relieving medications.  For many people, opioid pain-relieving medications provide the cornerstone treatment which reduces their pain enough so that they can engage with physical therapies. 

We aim to remove the stigma surrounding chronic pain and increase awareness and empathy for those living with chronic pain conditions.  Chronic pain patients, particularly those with high impact chronic pain, are often disabled by pain and are among the most vulnerable members of our community.

Additionally, we aim to reduce the stigma surrounding long term opioid therapy for chronic pain, and combat opioid hysteria by promoting recent and accurate scientific studies which show opioid therapy to be safe and effective in the appropriate patient.  Long-term opioid therapy has been shown to reduce pain, reduce disability and improve quality of life.

Further, we aim to end the conflation of the terms “addiction” and “dependence”.  Chronic pain patients rarely become addicted to their opioid pain-relieving medications, with recent multiple, large scale studies putting the addiction rate for chronic pain patients at less than 1%

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