Good pain care for kids should be a right, not a privilege. v.2
You can help make it one — not for a handful of children, but for millions, at a scale very few investments in children’s health can match.
3.5 million children reached across 218 countries and territories — built by one small team, and only beginning to show what’s possible with the right partners alongside us.
Right now, a child is in pain — and it didn’t have to happen.
My brother-in-law was terrified of needles because of his early experiences being held down for vaccines as a kid. He died of stage 4 cancer in his 40s because he waited six months to get a blood test. It killed me to know he would still be alive if someone had done what the research shows works when he was little. It scares me even more to know that same entirely preventable bad experience happens to kids every single day.
— Dr. Jody Thomas, PhD, Founder & CEO, Meg Foundation
From needle sticks and medical procedures to surgeries and chronic pain, the clinical practice of pain management is 30-40 years behind the research. The impact goes well beyond a hard few minutes in a doctor’s office or a rough hospital stay. It changes the course of a child’s life.
This is where you come in.
Maybe you remember the terror of going to the doctor to get a shot as a kid, or the anxiety of watching your child freak out over a vaccination. We all know that adult in our world we worry about because they “don’t do doctors” and don’t take care of their health the way they should. What you might not realize is that fear and avoidance stemmed from a preventable experience in childhood.
The statistics would say that you likely know someone who struggles with addiction to pain meds, or that you or someone you love has seen their life get smaller because of chronic pain. You’ve probably witnessed a family member’s suffering dealing with the pain that comes with a diagnosis like cancer or diabetes, or watched them struggle to find comfort after surgery or injury. The Meg Foundation exists because the research is clear that much of that pain is preventable.
Pain is an inescapable part of being human. The negotiable part is having the knowledge and skill set to cope with it. That is a solvable problem.
The size and scope of the problem will likely surprise you.
- It costs the US economy an estimated $635 billion a year, more than cancer, heart disease, and diabetes combined.
- In 2019, 20.4% of American adults reported struggling with chronic pain. By 2024, it was 24.3%.
- 20% of children experience chronic pain. Teaching them early how pain works and how they can manage it prevents them from becoming a statistic as an adult.
Reversing these trends requires focusing on where it starts: in childhood.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Decades of research are clear: there are evidence-based solutions to the pain problem. They are cost-effective, proven, and benefit every level of the system: the child, the family, the providers, public health, the business of health care. But they don’t happen consistently in most medical settings…yet. Most people don’t even realize they exist, including health care providers.
We are playing the short AND the long game.
We turn cutting-edge pain science into free digital tools that turn information into life-changing action, then use technology to reach families and clinicians around the world. Our upstream solutions prevent unnecessary suffering now AND create better long-term individual and public health outcomes.
A gift that keeps working.
Our open-access model is a force multiplier and gives the work an unusually high social impact return. Everything we make is free, digital, and built for mass distribution, so it costs essentially the same to reach one child or a million, and it lives in perpetuity. A single investment keeps generating downloads and uses for years. You are not funding a project that ends. You are funding a permanent expansion of public-health infrastructure that is already trusted, global, and proven.
The science is settled and the tools already work. What’s missing is the capacity to put them in the hands of every child who needs them — and that’s exactly what your gift makes possible.
You can put this in the hands of every child who needs it.
Everything Meg makes is free, in nine languages — so cost and language never decide who gets good care. And that reach grows with every partner who joins us.
Let’s talk about what you could put in motion.
A free library — already reaching millions.
We empower kids, families, and providers with person-centered, expert-vetted, science-based resources on pain and medical anxiety focused on self-advocacy and skill building. This includes information guides, worksheets, videos, and interactive technology that creates customized coping plans. Provider-focused content provides guidance on how to incorporate resources into clinical practice.
When you check out our resources, you’ll quickly see the branding and style that makes us different. Team Meg includes experts in design thinking, UX, health behavior change, and communications. Our tools are engaging and customizable, because a resource only helps if a child uses it.
At the core of our success: a model built for scale.
Because we don’t just want to change the pain experience for some kids. We want to do it for ALL kids.
Here are the strategic building blocks that allow for scalable change at the individual, organizational, and public health level:
Focus on ACTION.
We believe information isn’t power, but the ability to turn it into action is. People need not just the what and the why, but the HOW. Every single resource we create is designed to be picked up by a lay person and give them something to do that is going to make a difference in their lives today. Skill building creates lasting impact.
Partnerships are our superpower.
By giving our work away to individual providers, health care institutions, and other nonprofits, we create a massive ripple effect for large-scale change and empower the people already doing the good work. Our relationships with organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics help us support providers, get our resources in the hands of more families, and better understand the needs we are looking to fill. International relationships and translation work mean our work has been used in 218 countries and territories.
Trusted and used by the institutions that set the standard for pediatric care, including:
What the people closest to our work are saying:
What your gift grows.
The Meg Foundation runs lean — a small virtual team, almost no overhead — so your gift goes straight into free, digital tools in the hands of families and providers, not office costs. Here’s what it sets in motion:
- Reach further. Your gift carries the same proven model to more families, more providers, more languages, more countries.
- Open new doors. Your gift puts Meg in front of every family a new health system or institution serves.
- Build the team behind it. Your gift gives a handful of people who already reach millions the capacity to make, translate, and share more.
- Strengthen the tools that scale. Your gift funds the infrastructure that turns one fixed cost into ever-wider reach.
Let’s talk about what’s possible.
I’d love to start a conversation about what draws you to this work and how your support could create change at scale.
Dr. Jody Thomas, PhD, Founder & CEO
Clinical health psychologist and internationally recognized expert in pediatric pain and medical trauma.
Prefer to talk it through first? Reach Dr. Thomas directly at jody.thomas@megfoundationforpain.org.
Emi’s story.
Our vision:
A world free of unnecessary suffering that has closed the gap between science and clinical practice. A world where every child, family, and medical provider has the skills, information, and tools they need to understand, prevent, and manage pain. A world where good pain care is treated as a basic right, not a privilege. With you, we get there sooner.
