A RESOLUTION recognizing May 12, 2011, as Fibromyalgia Awareness Day in Kentucky, and urging all citizens to support the search for a cure.
WHEREAS, an estimated 10 million Americans have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, most of them women; and
WHEREAS, fibromyalgia is a chronic pain disorder that is becoming an increasingly common diagnosis and is taking a toll emotionally, financially, and socially on patients, their families, friends, co-workers, and communities; and
WHEREAS, many patients with fibromyalgia consult multiple healthcare providers and often live with the pain for years before it is properly diagnosed and managed; and
WHEREAS, fibromyalgia continues to be poorly understood but is a real disease that can be devastating to patients and families; and
WHEREAS, presently there is no cure for fibromyalgia but there are treatments that can help, and many people have found ways to have a good quality of life while living with fibromyalgia; and
WHEREAS, the chronically ill place a larger burden on the health-care and insurance industries and businesses that must cover the costly expenses associated with their treatment, medication, and sometimes hospitalization; and
WHEREAS, increased awareness and expanded knowledge of the realities of life with fibromyalgia will allow the community at large to better support patients and their families, friends, co-workers, and employers who struggle with the challenges of this chronic pain disorder; and
WHEREAS, there are common insurance barriers that impede access to pain care for those with fibromyalgia, and these barriers promote undue suffering and untreated, undertreated, or inappropriately treated pain;
NOW, THEREFORE,
Be it resolved by the Senate of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:
Section 1. The Senate does hereby recognize May 12, 2011, as Fibromyalgia Awareness Day in Kentucky.
Section 2. The Senate does hereby urge all of our citizens to support the search for a cure for fibromyalgia, and to assist those individuals and families who cope with this devastating disorder on a daily basis.