Together with several of his colleagues in the battle for pain patients’ rights, Richard “Red” Lawhern, Ph.D. recently unveiled a new organization,
Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain (ATIP)
ATIP on Facebook
This is a group of and for people willing to take an active part in changing the rules about pain treatment in this country, starting with lobbying to reject/repeal/replace the unscientific and biased CDC Opioid Prescribing Guideline.
If you’re looking for a way to make your voice heard, ATIP can help you channel it effectively.
If you’re looking for unbiased and accurate information about the supposed “opioid crisis”, ATIP can provide it.
If you’re looking for a support group… this is not it.
But if you’re looking to make a difference…
“It’s time to do something different, and the Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain needs YOUR help, your FAMILY MEMBERS’ help, and your FRIENDS help to do it.”
Instead of writing letters, it’s time to talk in person with our State and Federal legislators and their staffs.
You will not be alone or unsupported in this effort. The Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain will provide you information and backup. We will support you with expert interviews in radio or other media. We’ll talk to you by phone to help you prepare.
We want you or your family members to make a commitment to doing the following:
- Look up the phone numbers and locations of the nearest local offices of your Senators and Congressional Representative.
- Call the office and ask to schedule an in-person appointment with the local office director or other staff member to talk. Ask for 30 minutes with the staff member.
ATIP has information for:
- What to say – Initial Contact
- The Meeting/Conference Call
About Us
The Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain is an advocacy and action group. We are working for repeal and revision of the 2016 CDC Opioid Prescription Guidelines. We seek to promote a major redirection of US public policy concerning opioid addiction and the medical treatment of intractable pain.
We number among our members, Dr Forest Tennant, Editor Emeritus for Practical Pain Management, Dr. Stefan Kercesz MD, Dr Thomas Kline MD, Steven Hensen MD, Margaret Aranda MD, Steve Ariens, PharmD, Jeff Fudin, PharmD, Terri A Lewis, Ph.D., Richard (Red) Lawhern, Ph.D. and Josh Bloom, Ph.D..
Our physicians and pharmacists are joined by registered nurses, healthcare writers, social media support group leaders, knowledgeable patients and family members.
We are actively recruiting medical professionals, pain patients and family members for in-person lobbying of legislative staffs at local, State, and Federal level.
We support such efforts with training materials, scripts and coaching, as well as outreach efforts to influence media producers and news editors to interview our members.
For more information, see:
Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain (ATIP)
ATIP on Facebook
This may be the only pain patient advocacy group that takes no money from pharma (or anyone else).
EDS and Chronic Pain News & Info 
I want to join you,
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Great! Go to the website: http://face-facts.org/atip/ and check out the instructions for how to contact your Congress-people.
You’ll find all the info you need at http://face-facts.org/taking-action-tips-getting-voices-heard/
There you will find detailed instructions and even a handout.
This group is not about membership, it’s about taking personal action – a true challenge.
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I would very much like to support atip. I would like a physical address to send in a donation. I have been a ccp for most of my life. I held a full time job for 24 years. With out my pain medications I could not have managed. My employer never knew, or I would have been fired. Since then I have had 2 failed back surgeries , disc degeneration, osteoarthritis and the list goes on. Now my pain doctors are wanting me to undergo invasive surgeries to satisfy the CDC. Also they want me to take antidepressant drugs and others. I am not depressed, I just hurt. I was doing well before all these attacks on chronic pain patients started. I just found you organization a few days ago. I would like to help. I have limited internet access. Thank you so much.
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This is the copy Ive sent to senators, medical board, congressmen, news media, ets. Please help me. My name is Corey Welch, my dr. is Koch in boonville mu health clinic. I recently was taken off my medication, that I have been on by the same doctor for 30yrs. I have never abused my medicine and have never had any problems with them. I have a twisted pelvis, and artificial hip. They cant operate on the pelvis for fear of ruining the hip that has been in for 30yrs. The hip was replaced by Dr Anglen of mu. Dr Koch was my disability doctor and swore under oath I would be under pain medication for the rest of my life or until the hip goes out and they can operate. I was given a urine test, and also they took blood. The urine test was a false negative because I was never told to limit my fluid intake before coming to the test. Ive spoken to other doctors in Kansas city and both said I should have been told that too much fluid intake can cause a false negative and it was my doctor that should have explained that. The blood they took was not tested for the medications and thereby couldn’t prove that the urine test was a false negative. I demand a new test, or the blood to be tested, and to be put back on my medication so I can maintain my way of life. Whats sad is im getting older and have asked dr Koch for more help, he refuses. Telling me to go to another doctor is not feasible because no other doctors prescribe these meds in boonville. I am disabled and have no way to travel anywhere else. My car is old, has 380k miles and barely makes it here in town. This was an injustice by my doctor and nurse, by not telling me I could be sabotaging my urine test by doing normal routines in the morning. How many other people have lost their meds over this lack of knowledge. The news media should do a story to find out just how many. Or I would have limited the intake until after the test. This is so unfair and being treated like some pain junkie is horrible. Even robin tried to tell me it wasn’t a pain clinic. Yet she has been my nurse for 25yrs through sickness and other patient problems. Now all of a sudden im no longer their patient but a pain seeker? After 30yrs of following every order of dr koch’s It would be nice to be given the benefit of the doubt that im not lying… Why wouldn’t they double check with a blood test… they have the blood from the same day.. Ive been treated unfairly, unjustly, and kept from knowledge that would have avoided all this. How sad is it when your doctor doesn’t care enough to tell you what you need to know. Ive done nothing to be treated in this fashion. I need your help to fix this as the medicine doest stop the pain, it helps me manage it through out the day, so I can do my daily duties. Or I would be so much in pain I would be stuck in bed or a chair and my life would deteriorate greatly
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I’m so sorry for what you’re going through. The DEA is going after doctors who prescribe opioids, so it’s possible your doctor got notified that he was under investigation (that’s what it really sounds like to me). Doctors are loosing their careers and going to jail for prescribing opioids to pain patients – it’s wrong in so many ways, but right now this anti-pain relief insanity is killing people.
If your doc prescribes you more opioids, he may be prosecuted and lose his license and then not be able to continue prescribing anyway. What can he do? Either way, we lose. The docs are being judged by non-medical DEA agents who decide how much is “too much” prescribing – there’s no medical evaluation of your pain or his prescribing.
Your doctor is probably only trying to save his career, the one he worked so hard for so many years to attain, while you and his other pain patients are “collateral damage” he cannot help without losing his career. This has nothing to do with our medical needs and everything to do with the “drug war”.
We are living in an age of insanity.
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