THIRD READING

Bill No: SCR 154

Author: Liu (D)

Introduced: 6/15/16

Vote: 21

SUBJECT: Pain Awareness Month and Women in Pain Awareness Day

SOURCE: For Grace (A Project of Community Partners)

DIGEST:

This resolution recognizes the month of September 2016 as Pain Awareness Month. This resolution also recognizes September 23, 2016, as Women In Pain Awareness Day.

ANALYSIS: This resolution makes the following legislative findings:

More than 100 million Americans live with chronic pain caused by various diseases or disorders, and nearly 25 million Americans suffer with acute pain each year.
Though medical knowledge and technology exist to relieve or greatly ease pain, most pain is untreated, undertreated, or improperly treated, and many health care professionals are still unaware of how to effectively treat pain.
People who suffer from chronic pain often are stigmatized, marginalized, and not informed about the right to effective pain assessment and management, and most people with pain, including those at the end of life, get little or no relief.
Women have a higher prevalence than men of syndromes and diseases associated with chronic pain, such as fibromyalgia, complex pain syndrome, and osteoarthritis, and women respond differently to certain analgesics.
Women more frequently report pain to a health care provider, but are more likely to have their pain reports discounted as emotional or psychogenic and, therefore, not real.

This resolution:

Recognizes and declares the month of September 2016 as Pain Awareness Month, and calls upon all Californians to observe the month by participating in appropriate ceremonies and activities, and by learning how to improve the quality of life for people in California suffering from pain.
Recognizes September 23, 2016, as Women In Pain Awareness Day to draw public attention to the important need to raise awareness concerning gender disparities in pain assessment and treatment in the United States.

Prior Legislation

SCR 77 (Liu, Resolution Chapter 146, Statutes of 2015) recognized the month of September 2015 as Pain Awareness Month and also recognized September 11, 2015, as Women In Pain Awareness Day.

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local: No

SUPPORT: (Verified 6/20/16)

For Grace (A Project of Community Partners) (source)

OPPOSITION: (Verified 6/20/16)

None received

Prepared by: Karen Chow / SFA / (916) 651-1520

6/22/16 15:15:12

**** END ****

SCR 154: Pain Awareness Month and Women In Pain Awareness Day.

Senate Floor

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