Untreated Pain: Tens of millions of people worldwide living with AIDS, cancer, injuries, chronic illness, women in labor and children suffer needlessly from pain. While there are many problems for which we do not have solutions, pain is not one of them. This needless suffering occurs because morphine, the inexpensive medicine these people need, is derived from opium, perhaps the most controversial and controlled substance on Earth.

Need for Palliative Care: Of the 56 million people who die each year, more than 60% could benefit from pain relief and palliative care. But only 1 billion of the world’s 7 billion people have any access to palliative care services. Unless we solve this global crisis, at least one in every ten of us will experience an agonizing and undignified death.

The LIFE Before Death videos were filmed on location in 11 countries with over 200 participants. As they unfold, we uncover hard truths about the ‘torture by neglect’ occurring every day in hospitals around the world where there is no access to pain medications or palliative care. Through the eyes of patients and their families, we also witness the immense hope that comes from those health care professionals brave enough to accompany patients living with advancing illness on their journeys to gratifying end-of-life experiences filled with dignity, love and peace. They demonstrate the opportunity to live and die well even in the face of advancing illness, and make the most of every moment of our lives before death. The tireless struggle of health care pioneers pits them against insensitive governments, dysfunctional bureaucracies, over-zealous law enforcement agencies and, above all, the deep-seated attitudes of you and me. Their mission is to transform health care globally to be more focused on care, rather than exclusively on cure.

The Life Before Death videos were reviewed in The Lancet Oncology, August 2011;12(8):733-734 (Open Access).

The LIFE Before Death videos were sponsored by the Lien Foundation and produced by Moonshine Movies in Melbourne, Australia. Production was also supported by the International Association for the Study of Pain, The Mayday Fund, the Union for International Cancer Control and the International Programs of The Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice (IPM).

IPM is partnered with the www.TreatthePain.com, www.LifeBeforeDeath.com and the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care to disseminate these videos.

50 Short Advocacy Videos

• Treat the Pain is the first collection of 25 short videos focused on the global epidemic of untreated pain that will be released one per week for six months starting in May 2011.
• LIFE Before Death is a second collection of 25 short videos focused on the need for palliative and end-of-life care that will be released one per week for six months after the ‘Treat the Pain’ collection is complete in October 2011.

Feature Film / TV Documentary: Concurrent with the short advocacy videos, a feature film will be released in late 2011, followed by of a television documentary that will be released in early 2012.