“ We must all die. But that I can save (a person) from days of torture, that is what I feel as my great and even new privilege. Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself. "

-- Albert Schweitzer

Chronic pain is, without doubt, one of the most frequently overlooked, mistreated, undertreated, and poorly responded to public health issues in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Nationally, we do know that the problem of chronic pain impacts the lives of more than 75 million people in the United States each year. Annually, it leads to 100 million doctor visits and 550 million work days lost. One in ten experience migraine; Arthritis affects 80 million Americans; Low-back pain has disabled 10 million Americans, generating 22 million visits to physicians every year. Pain costs our nation an estimated $100 billion every year, (D. Bressler, 1996--Founder UCLA Pain Service).

Health-care statistics tell us that “chronic pain is an epidemic in this country”, (Bressler, 1996). While statistics can open our eyes to the magnitude of the problem, they merely point to harsh realities. They do not move us to act... However, real people in our own community do. What moves us to act is our own spouse cut off early from their vibrant career; it is our own cousin ripped out of their long planned retirement; it is our own child born with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, the one who rarely experiences the joy of childhood; it is the one who cleans our office: the father of four who now must tragically exchange those three $7 dollar per hour jobs for a two year stint on the sofa.

“Low income and uninsured / underinsured are often isolated in dealing with the horrors of chronic pain”, (R. Weiner, Ph.D., 1994). “These individuals have typically suffered through several years of agony, undergone two or more failed surgeries for pain relief, are restricted in their jobs if not totally unable to work, take various and multiple medications for pain, experience chronic sleep disturbance and marital and family dysfunction, suffer depression and emotional distress, and are physically and psychologically depleted", (C. David Tollison, Ph.D., 1982).

This could become the fate of any of us; on any given day, on any given turn of any given dime. For Those In Pain, Inc. is deeply concerned about this. Hence, we take very seriously the responsibility to educate the community about the issues at hand. Our intent is to create and write compassionate and compelling educational materials to improve the quality of life of those Tollison and Weiner describe. We have chosen to do so by advocating for, writing about, and persuading toward the marvelous realization that, in the context of chronic pain, the most important pain management tool any pain patient can have access to is themselves. Hence, we work to popularize, articulate, and argue for the value of educating and training the patient toward successful and effective self-management.

For Those In Pain, Inc. labors with passion and zeal to be a voice in the community for those who cannot be heard. We are proud to know that we are the San Francisco Bay Area’s only nonprofit solely dedicated to providing professional no & low cost non-medical pain management services to an entirely underserved, overlooked, and ignored segment of our community.