Link: About the NIH-DOD-VA Pain Management Collaboratory – Pain Management Collaboratory

The Pain Management Collaboratory is comprised of 11 large-scale, multisite, pragmatic clinical trials that focus on implementation and evaluation of nonpharmacological approaches for the management of pain and common co-occurring conditions in Military and Veterans healthcare systems. The Pain Management Collaboratory Coordinating Center (PMC3) facilitates and supports the individual trials through its leadership core and domain-oriented working groups, which foster collaboration and harmonization across the trials.

Source: About the NIH-DOD-VA Pain Management Collaboratory – Pain Management Collaboratory

If you are involved in any type of healing that has to do with pain management, and has a long enough established rate of success, you may want to get involved in this project. This is one of the few places we can change the system from within both by helping soldiers to recover from the mental and physical traumas from their service, and affirming their humanity while reducing their dependence on pharmaceutical methods of pain management.

Warriors are an important part of a healthy society, and once they’ve done their time and been “used up” by the state, many feel lost, especially if their service has left them with long term or permanent injuries. The transition from life as the government’s tool of destruction to society’s agent of protection is made much easier if their value is recognized and they are given actual practical help.

I often wonder if a lot of the ableism in American culture is sustained by the neglect of disabled veterans. If someone was on the track to sacrifice their life for such a country, they may legitimately believe that they are worthless or useless if they are disabled or in pain, and will spread that feeling through their politics and voting. If someone believes their own life has no value, and their own pain is not worth easing, they will create that world around them.

So as much as you may disagree with many of our leaders and the whole system around warfare, consider that it may bring about some change to heal the people damaged by this system. Certainly, the direct victims of state violence need and deserve it more, but the source of the violence needs to be healed to stop making new victims.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.