LIFE Before Death Spread The Word

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"Spread The Word"

Short Film 50 of 50 in the LIFE Before Death documentary series about the global crisis in untreated pain and the dramatic life changing effect palliative care services can deliver to patients and their families around the world.

In this Short Film we discover the importance of advocacy is raising the pressing issue of access to essential pain medicines and palliative care services around the world.

"Advocacy today I feel is the key," states Dr MR Rajagopal (India). "True, we need education for the professionals, we need to overcome the regulatory barriers to opioid availability, but though so many people have been trying for so many years in the developing world, there has been so little progress because we have not been able to project it as an urgent need. We have not been able to reach out to the common man because if the decent people had raised their voices the policy-makers and law-makers would have sat up and listened. I do believe that advocacy is the key."

"Universal access to pain and symptom control, the relief of suffering around the globe, is achievable," affirms Dr Charles Von Gunten (USA).

"Palliative care is not a big ask," continues Dr Liz Gwyther (South Africa). "The main thing is awareness and education."

"Getting people to care about it is the greatest challenge," reflects Dr Meg O'Brien (USA). "Once we solve that a lot of things will fall into place."

"An estimated five billion people alive in the world today in countries around this world have limited or no access to controlled medicines including opioid analgesics," reports Dr John Seffrin (USA). "It isn't easy but this is a fixable problem."

"Until the politicians understand that the public are equally concerned, if not more concerned, about access to pain relief as they are about illicit drug use, we won't get very far," observes Professor David Hill (Australia).

"The fact that pain causes great suffering but that it can generally be treated with effective and often inexpensive medications, that makes the failure to provide pain treatment a violation of human rights," reports Diederik Lohman.

Featuring: Dr MR Rajagopal (India), Dr Charles Von Gunten (USA), Dr Liz Gwyther (South Africa), Dr Meg O'Brien (USA), Dr John Seffrin (USA), Professor David Hill (Australia), Dr Kathleen Foley (USA), Diederik Lohman (The Netherlands), Dr Jim Cleary (Australia), Doug Ulman (USA).

LIFE Before Death comprises 50 short films themed around pain control and end of life issues, releasing one a week for a year from May 2011.

The feature film was released in early 2012. It is available from http://www.lifebeforedeath.com

The project is presented by the Lien Foundation and produced by Moonshine Movies.

It is also supported by The International Association for the Study of Pain, The Mayday Fund, The Union for International Cancer Control and The Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice International Programs.

http://www.lifebeforedeath.com

Видео LIFE Before Death Spread The Word канала LIFE Before Death