Stacey Turiello

I am a disabled, national patient advocate, writer, and Ambassador for the Chronic Disease Coalition currently living in Chicagoland.

http://www.chronicdiseasecoalition.org

My interests lie in repealing/revising federal and state policies that severely restrict and/or deny adequate prescription opioid pain relief medication and care to millions of patients with incurable, chronic painful illnesses, such as cancer, pancreatitis, endometriosis, CRPS, and palliative care patients, profoundly diminishing their ability to function and quality of life. I also work to create policy protections specifically for this distinctive patient population.

As a disabled patient and advocate, I am in the unique position to assist patients navigate the distress of modern pain management in a time when compliant patients in pain are routinely abandoned by their physicians, forcibly tapered off successful prescription analgesic maintenance, denied payment of their prescription pain medications by insurance, and deceived about changes in the laws, policies, and practices of pain control by the healthcare community, payers, and providers.

I advocate and collaborate with several local and national nonprofit organizations, patient advocates, and patient support organizations every day to provide education about the crucial role opioids have in modern pain management. Prescription opioid pain relief is a medical necessity for millions of high impact chronic/intractable pain patients to restore their ability to work, care for family, worship with community, perform activities of daily living and attain quality of life. I also work to reduce the staggeringly high number of patient suicides due to under/untreated pain, eradicate the stigma surrounding pain, inform and educate, and influence balanced policy with the ultimate goal of achieving patient access to individualized, effective pain care with all modalities of pain relief (including both pharmaceutical and complementary) to restore our lives so we may all be active participants in our families and communities again soon.