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VA » Health Care » Pain Management, Opioid Safety, and PDMP (PMOP)

Pain Management, Opioid Safety, and PDMP (PMOP)

Picture of the letters that spell out pain

We Care for Our Veterans

Pain can impact almost every aspect of your life, and you deserve to receive safe and effective care.

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Transforming VA Pain Care

Our Interdisciplinary Pain Management Teams are dedicated to helping you make informed decisions about your treatment and care.

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PMOP

Pain Management, Opioid Safety, and Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) - PMOP Office provides oversight for Pain/Opioid Safety initiatives.

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Veterans Providers PMOP

Transforming VA Pain Care

The Six Essentials Elements of Good Pain Care

1. Educate Veterans/families to promote self-efficacy and shared decision making; provide access to all relevant resources
2. Educate/train all team members to their discipline specific competencies, including team based care
3. Develop and integrate non-pharmacological modalities into care plans
4. Institute evidence based medication prescribing, use of pain procedures and safe opioid use (universal precautions)
5. Implement approaches for bringing the Veteran’s whole team together such as virtual pain consulting (SCAN-ECHO, e-consults, tele-health, clinical video tele-consultation and education) and for maintaining ongoing communication between team members
6. Establish metrics to monitor pain care and outcomes at both the individual level and the population level

	NEW online training course provides practical advice for helping complex patients who do not respond to standard medical treatments. Continuing medical education credit is available. − For VA Providers − For DoD & Other Health Care Providers
	See the "latest" Veterans/Public - Complementary And Integrative Health section about Home Practice Exercises. − Yoga/Tai Chi − Physical Activity - Physical Therapy & Chair Exercises − Acupressure
	Visit the CBT-CP section to learn how it can be used as an effective treatment for reducing the negative impacts of chronic pain. − CBT-CP for Veterans − CBT-CP for Providers
	Pain in Women Veterans. − Chronic Pain - Women Veterans Health Care (va.gov) − Podcast ‘She Wears the Boots”: Podcasts - Women Veterans Health Care (va.gov)

Upcoming Events

Resources

Research

Upcoming Events

Tuesday, September 10, 2024; 11:00am ET

Scalable Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Chronic Pain: Results from the Learning to Apply Mindfulness to Pain (LAMP) Trial

by Diana Burgess, PhD

Tuesday, October 1, 2024; 11:00am ET

Implementation of New Physical Therapy Programs for Knee Osteoarthritis in the VA

by Kelli Allen, PhD

Tuesday, November 5, 2024; 11:00am ET

Optimizing Equity and Inclusion in Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Findings from the Pain Management Collaboratory

by Travis Lovejoy, PhD

Tuesday, December 3, 2024; 11:00am ET

How Many Chiropractic Visits does it take to Help Veterans with Chronic Low Back Pain? Part 1: Characteristics of the VERDICT Sample

by Cynthia Long, PhD, PStat & Christine Goertz, DC, PhD

Resources

The VA/DoD Clinical Guidelines for prescribing opioids for chronic pain have brought renewed attention to the field of pain management for Veterans and the greater community. Health care professionals who treat pain require regular pain assessments that consider both emotional and sensory aspects of a patient’s pain experience. Explore a curated list of useful pain management information, assessment and drug monitoring tools in chronic pain management and opioid prescribing.

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Research

Discovery & Innovation | Pain Research and Intervention

Veterans Affairs' research priorities address unmet needs, areas of scientific opportunity and strategies to create solutions to the opioid crisis.

Resources for Clinical Research in Pain Management

Veterans Affairs (VA) supports research to enhance pain management and improve treatment for opioid misuse and addiction in Veteran Communities.

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Pain Management - Web Resources

Explore by Pain Management Topic

Pain Management - Home	CBT-CP

Current Events/News	Opioid Safety

For Providers	Research

For Veterans/Public

Opioids - Literature Alerts for VA Staff

The VA Library Network will provide VA staff an index of recent articles related to opioids and many other areas of interest right to your work mailbox. If you are interested in subscribing to this alert, visit the VHA National Desktop Library Literature e-Alerts page and the Weekly PubMed/MEDLINE Alerts section to sign up.

Link out to full text articles using the blue VA Library Full Text icon: If an article of interest does not have a VA Library Full Text icon, search your library’s online journals and online books listing with the citation’s PubMed ID or journal title to check for a local subscription. Contact your local VA library if you need assistance retrieving full text articles (please note, this library directory is only available on the VA Intranet).

If you have questions or suggestions for pain-related resources, please send an email to VHA Pain Management Webmaster Group. Questions about personal care should be directed to the local VA facility.