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Help Support Acupuncture and Integrative Health by April 1st

I'm asking for your help today. The short call to action is: comment in support of HHS-OS-2018-0027 (link below). The deadline to comment is April 1st and we need your positive comments, the more comments the better (one per person, please!).

The Details

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Pain Management Best Practices Task Force recently wrote a report entitled, Draft Report on Pain Management Best Practices: Updates, Gaps, Inconsistencies, and Recommendations, This report is open for public comment until Monday, April 1st, 2019. This report very strongly supports a multi-disciplinary approach to pain, It specifically includes acupuncture, and also:
including mind-body behavioral interventions, acupuncture and massage, osteopathic and chiropractic manipulation, meditative movement therapies (e.g., yoga, tai chi), and natural products, among others.
It is important to note that the report does not discount the use of opioid completely, but recommends that they be included in a comprehensive approach to pain management of both acute and chronic pain. You can read the whole report here It's quite long, but worth skimming at least.

The Ask

Comments end April 1st, and many groups are already commenting against the proposed recommendations. These commenters support more use of pharmacological methods, and this largely means opioids. This will lead to poor patient outcomes and harm to patients. If acupuncture or other Complementary and Integrative Health intervention has helped you: Please comment in support of the report. Remember techniques include: chiropractic, osteopathic, meditation and mindfulness, tai chi and yoga, and others.
If you think patients are best served by their doctors evaluating all the options including opioids and medications, then again I am asking you to comment in support. Even if you disagree with some of the particulars in the report, I am asking you to keep your message on a very positive and supportive note. The comments are open to everyone in the US including patients, patient advocates, or any citizen concerned about health-care in the US. That should be all of us!

Important Points

  1. Comment in support by April 1st. Identify yourself as a patient, friend of a patient, provider, doctor, or just a concerned citizen as you feel appropriate.
  2. Keep your message positive.

Suggested comments

Use one of the following in your own words to convey your support. Link at the end.
  • Your report represents a leap forward in acute and chronic pain management. I am in strong support of this approach.
  • As a patient, I've been helped by acupuncture/chiropractic/osteopathic/meditation or another Complementary and Integrative Health intervention and I strongly support their inclusion in your report.
  • As an patient/doctor/etc, I appreciate your recommendation of a multi-modal approach to pain and the use of the biopsychosocial model.
  • I have benefited from acupuncture and integrative care in my management of pain. Making this care more available is critical to the success of our country in overcoming the opioid crisis.
  • Patient centered care is important to me and my family, I strongly support your report and believe the US health-care system will benefit from it.
  • Your report is comprehensive and thoughtful. Thank you for thinking of the whole person in working on issues of pain.
  • Thank you for the time and effort you put into writing this tremendous document. We have relied for too long on opioids to treat pain, and that has lead to countless deaths and lives damaged. Let’s move beyond that narrow and ineffective view.
  • I strongly support the multidimensional approach outlined in your report; it represents a great service to pain management in this country.
  • As a chronic pain patient, I thank you for this report which includes many options and approaches for complex conditions like mine. I think this is a step forward in patient care in this country.

Comment On The Report

The comment page is here. Leave a comment with your name, again one comment per person please.
If the comment page is down, you can email comments to paintaskforce@hhs.gov
Ask your friends to comment too! Once you have left your comment, please ask your friends and family to comment. The more comments we get, the better. As I mentioned above, many are already commenting against this report in favor of opioids first or even only opioids for pain management. We all know that an integrated plan that includes all options provides the best patient outcomes. Please let HHS know your support of this approach.

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