A global survey on suffering has been launched by the Organization for the Prevention of Intense Suffering (OPIS), which hopes to hear from 5,000 to 10,000 people around the world who have experienced significant suffering.
The survey is anonymous, takes five to 15 minutes to complete, and will continue until the end of 2024.
The survey is intended to capture all forms of suffering, physical or psychological, whether experienced in the past or present. It seeks to provide a rough estimate of the amount of intense suffering, assessing both duration and intensity. Caregivers are encouraged to assist loved ones to respond if they are unable to do so themselves.
When asked why it has embarked on the study, OPIS Executive Director Jonathan Leighton said, "We've had the idea, for quite a few years, to develop a more comprehensive and quantitative overview for the purpose of raising awareness and highlighting better policies as well as solutions that the individual can apply.
"We also want to identify more extreme suffering, at the high end of the scale," he adds. This is a natural extension of OPIS's advocacy for the treatment of people with cluster headaches, an often unrecognized but excruciating condition.
—Pallinews Editor Alison Ramsey
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