New How-to Videos Help Caregivers Improve Quality of Life When Family Members Suffer Chronic Pain

SEATTLE, March 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Pain Stompers, a web-based informational resource, today announces the launch of a new video series that immediately improves the quality of life for families of the 53 million Americans living with chronic pain.

"Chronic pain can easily take over a family's life," says Pain Stompers founder Dr. Vicki Rackner, a former surgeon, author and speaker who has improved the lives of tens of thousands of patients, family caregivers and health care professionals. "I developed the Pain Stompers Pearls video series to inform, empower and encourage the family and friends who want to make life more manageable."

The videos can be viewed at http://www.PainStompers.com  

The new Pain Stompers Pearls program delivers 2-minute videos with best practices to make a positive difference to loved ones in pain. Each tip is:

• Short and practical
• Empowering and optimistic
• Effective at immediately improving the family's condition

The videos offer a story and a pearl of wisdom to help people with no medical training identify the thoughts, feelings and actions that make things better -- and not worse -- when caring for aging parents or partners or children.

Crazy-busy caregivers who want and need information are often too tired to read a book, too on-the-go to linger on websites and too distracted to hunt for help. However, they can watch a 2-minute video delivered to their iPhone while waiting for the pharmacist to fill a prescription.

Rackner says, "People ask: 'Why create videos for family caregivers? Wouldn't it be better to make videos for the people in pain?' My 25-year medical career offers 3 insights:

1. Pain-free family and friends have more emotional reserve to try a new approach than people with pain.  

2. Caregivers' actions count. Patients with strong, supportive families had better medical outcomes than others with families that buckled under the stress of illness.  

3. Counterintuitively, the question, 'How do I change the way I relate to the person in pain?' often immediately decreases the intensity of a loved one's physical pain.

"Of course, people in pain can benefit from the videos, too; after all, they're their own caregivers!"

Funding for the videos, free to caregiving subscribers, comes from sponsors.  

Sponsors benefit by aligning themselves with a unique community service; in addition, sponsorship offers businesses an innovative way to get their names in front of caregiving viewers who are often affluent Boomers caring for aging parents.

Pain Stompers is actively recruiting sponsors for the Pain Stompers Pearls video program.

For information about sponsorships or unique content, please call Dr. Rackner at 425-451-3777 or go to http://www.PainStompers.com  

Can struggling families do things differently? "The answer is an empathic YES!" says Rackner. "Anyone can learn the best practices of successful families. That's what Pain Stompers is all about. No matter what's happened in the past, there's a hope for a better today and tomorrow."

About Pain Stompers  

Pain Stompers is a web-based resource offering information and services to immediately improve the quality of life for families living with chronic pain. Online learning, lectures, workshops, coaching and the new Pain Stompers Pearls video program help friends and family caring for loved ones in pain:

• Wake in the morning saying, "I can do this."
• Go about their days saying, "I know what to do."
• Go to bed at night saying, "I did a good (enough) job today."

Families find strength and hope to manage life with chronic medical conditions such as: MS, Arthritis, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Cancer Pain, Migraines and Headaches, Neuropathic Pain, Facial Pain, Low Back Pain, Interstitial Cystitis and many more.

About Dr. Vicki Rackner, Founder of the Pain Stompers

Dr. Vicki Rackner is a former surgeon, author and speaker who has improved the lives of tens of thousands of patients, family caregivers and health care professionals. A decade ago she left the operating room and clinical faculty appointment at the University of Washington School of Medicine to serve as a nationally recognized expert in the doctor-patient-caregiver relationship.

Dr. Rackner will speak at the Annual Conference of the American Society of Aging (http://www.asaging.org/aia11), the largest gathering of professionals from the fields of aging, healthcare and education.

SOURCE Pain Stompers