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.