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LIFE Before Death #5 -- What is Pain?

Posted by Greg Schneider on June 19, 2011 at 8:15am
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Tags: "end of life", "palliative care", cancer, "chronic pain", hospice
"What Is Pain?" Short Film 5 of 50 in the LIFE Before Death documentary series about the global crisis in untreated pain and the dramatic life changing affect palliative care services can deliver to patients and their families around the world. In this Short Film we discover the technical definition of pain and the impact it can have on a person's total well being through its deterioration of an individual's autonomy. Illustrating the magnitude of its influence, we hear doctors reflecting on patient's testimony saying they would do anything to be relieved of their pain. "Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage," explains Professor Michael Cousins (Australia). He goes further to discuss the shortcomings in the treatment of pain. Mary Callaway (USA) underscores the importance of young doctors believing patients' pain experiences. "The patient says he's in pain, the patient's in pain, and then you need to figure out how to measure it, and we know how to measure it, and track it over time." Dr Jim Cleary (Australia) and Liliana De Lima (Colombia) reiterate the deeply subjective nature of pain. Cancer patients Bob (Australia) and Bernard (Singapore) describe the debilitating impact that pain has had on their quality of life. Sickle cell patient Teena (USA) goes further by explaining how she scores her pain and when she knows her threshold has been reached. Featuring Dr Liz Gwyther (South Africa), Professor Michael Cousins (Australia), Dr Jay Thomas (USA), Mary Calloway (USA), Dr Kathleen Foley (USA), Dr Jim Cleary (Australia), Liliana De Lima (Colombia), Bob (Australia), Bernard (Singapore) and Teena (USA). LIFE Before Death is a documentary project comprising a feature film, a one-hour television program and 50 short films. The project is broadly about terminal patients, their families and the remarkable health care professionals fighting to change the culture of medicine to be focused on care, rather than exclusively on cure. LIFE Before Death will include 50 short films themed around pain control and end of life issues, releasing one a week for a year from May 2011. A feature film will be released in late 2011, followed by the release of a television documentary in early 2012. 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.

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