As 2018 draws to a close, the Social Impact of Pain (SIP) initiative can be proud of its achievements in the past 12 months.
Our greatest achievement at European level was the development and presentation of the final Joint Statement by the Social Impact of Pain (SIP) Thematic Network (TN) team, on 12 November, to the European Commission, which welcomed its findings and proposals. This Joint Statement and the accompanying Framing Paper were the result of the SIP TN team’s hard work through active collection and analysis of pivotal information, continuous dialogue with the European Commission and interested stakeholders, as well as incorporating stakeholder feedback received from the two live Commission-organised webinars. The Joint Statement was also presented at the Brain, Mind, and Pain Group in the European Parliament on 21 November and at the European Public Health (EPH) Conference on 29 November, in Ljubljana.
The goals of the SIP Joint Statement are (1) to promote pain as health quality indicator, (2) to promote further research on pain, (3) to address chronic pain as a factor in employment, (4) to promote pain education of healthcare professionals, patients and society at large. The Thematic Network programme has been a unique chance in 2018 to create enormous awareness on the objectives and activities of the European SIP Platform and to connect with other European initiatives. The next step in 2019 will be to garner further support for the Joint Statements’ proposals and implement them via the SIP European and national Platforms, the Joint Statement’s endorsers, and other interested partners and stakeholders.
To date, the Joint Statement has received endorsements from over 50 organisations.
