Pain Management, Opioid Safety, and PDMP (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
Pain Management Resources:
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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, February 4, 2025; 11:00am ET
Complementary and Integrative Health Therapies for Pain at the VA:
Research on What is Being Provided and How Well They are Working
by Stephanie Taylor, PhD, MPH & Diana Burgess PhD
The list of upcoming Cybersemimars and registration information is available on the VA intranet only.
If you have VA network access, copy and paste the following URL into your browser:
vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/cyberseminars/catalog-upcoming.cfm
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.
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.
Pain Management - Web Resources
- Coming soon!
Explore by Pain Management Topic
 Pain Management - Home |
CBT-CP |
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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.
