The International Association “Together Against Pain” was founded on April 15, 1997, in Geneva, Switzerland, by a group of experts and organisations who were already very active in and committed to various programmes to combat and alleviate pain.

Originally the anti-pain movement was spontaneous, disparate and independent. The International Association “Together Against Pain” has two main points of focus: the alleviation of pain suffered by cancer patients and the alleviation of all other forms of pain experienced in hospital, hospice or home settings. In the late 1980s, the roots of the group was formed, due to the increasing interest that the movement generated in Europe and North America. It became more and more apparent that needs were growing and that the movement required coordination across local and national structures. Equally, it became obvious there was a need to create a formal group dedicated to pain alleviation at the international level to develop and run the hospital-based campaigns “Towards a pain-free hospital” and “Living with cancer without pain” and provide motivation for the people and organisations running these campaigns.

It is therefore around the key idea of solidarity that the Association was founded. Indeed, by mobilising healthcare professionals and allied healthcare professionals, professionals in social services, administrators of health institutions, policy-makers and politicians, as well as the indispensable mobilisation of patients, carers and families themselves, we believe that we can achieve our goals, which are to ensure that each person, at every age, is treated with respect and dignity and that each person’s integrity is preserved.