ACEs & the Opioid Risk Tool Explained | How Trauma History Is Used to Flag Patients and Deny Pain Care

About this episode

This episode discusses the misapplication of ACEs and the Opioid Risk Tool in pain care and their impact on patient treatment.

This episode breaks down ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and the Opioid Risk Tool (ORT) — what these tools were actually designed for, and how they’re often misapplied in pain care to flag patients as “high risk” and deny treatment. We walk through: • what ACEs really measure • how the Opioid Risk Tool was created • where the sexual trauma question came from • why these tools were never meant to be used to deny care • and how trauma history screening is being used against pain patients in practice The misapplication of these tools is what pushed me to become an advocate in the first place, and we’ve spent years documenting and raising awareness about this issue. This recording was originally shared privately with our Patreon community in 2024. I’ve now made it public so anyone can hear the full explanation directly, with the research and context included. If I reference documents or screenshots during this episode, you can find the full video version on our YouTube channel. — 🌐 Website: https://www.thedoctorpatientforum.com/ 📌 Support our work on Patreon: https://patreon.com/thedoctorpatientforum Patreon support helps fund: • patient advocacy • policy research • FOIAs and…

People in this episode

Host: The Doctor Patient Forum

Topics covered

• ACEs
• Opioid Risk Tool
• pain care
• trauma history
• patient advocacy

Keywords

• ACEs
• Opioid Risk Tool
• pain management
• trauma
• patient advocacy
• healthcare policy

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Opioid Risk Tool

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