Why Are So Many in Armenia Refused Painkillers? New Campaign to ‘Stop the Pain’ Launched in Armenia

Thousands of people in Armenia suffer from life-limiting and chronic illness. The lack of access to oral morphine for pain relief puts those patients in unnecessary pain.

Pain and death are unavoidable, but it is a person's right to have access to pain relief or palliative care. The public is obliged to respect and ensure the right of a person in need of palliative care and to give him the opportunity to live a dignified life, according to a statement issued by an alliance of individuals and experts and Armenian and international organizations, which, supported by the Open Society Foundation–Armenia, has planned several events as part of a campaign called Stop the Pain, organized to mark World Hospice and Palliative Care Day on Oct. 6. 

According to the campaign website: "The question of why patients are not properly treated and continue to suffer, persists. The main problem is likely not a doctor’s mercilessness or lack of knowledge and experience. The problem is the stereotype against narcotic drugs and the fear that the quantity of people using the drugs can increase because of prescription for these means. Opiophobia has developed in our society. This is one important explanation, but nothing compared to the huge quantity of drug trafficking. This is exactly why power structures check medical institutions and healthcare workers.

"Additionally, one must fill out a number of registration forms and health certificates for a single injection in postoperative period. Such an injection can be made only in the presence of physician. After that, many notes are taken in different documents, committees convene to destroy vials while people using drugs still have access to narcotic drugs. A patient suffering from severe pains remains without a painkiller. It is not acceptable."

The events planned are as follows:

Oct. 11: press conference in Yerevan, Media Center, 12 pm, and a televised segment in Vanadzor where various experts will speak and present the importance of the issue and future tasks
Oct. 12: film screening and discussion, 2 pm, Congress Hotel. The film is fictional, describing an elderly couple's love story and is on the issue of palliative care. In Russian with English subtitles.
Oct. 15: an informational event from 4 to 6 pm at the corner of Abovyan and Sayat-Nova streets in Yerevan, where brochures will be distributed to passers-by; a choir will perform classical music; and as a symbol of pain and torture a "chair of pain" will be on display.

Organizations who've joined the campaign are the International Palliative Care Initiative; Pain Management and Palliative Care Association; Women's Resource Center of Armenia; Real World, Real People NGO; Armenian Center for Health Initiatives NGO; and Public Information and Need of Knowledge (PINK Armenia) NGO.