MS Awareness Week 2023: 5 ways you can support self-management
NewsThis MS Awareness Week is all about understanding people's experiences of MS, encouraging those with MS to share their experiences and helping those around them to better understand their day to day lives, the challenges they face, and how to support them more.
We interviewed Joanne, who has lived with MS for 20 years but who only really engaged with her own experiences of the condition a few years ago. Instead, she focused on caring for her brother, who also has MS, and her mother who has dementia.
She shares the impact of not engaging with her own diagnosis, the essential role that her MS team have had in her life over the past few years, and how pursuing self-management for herself has led to her finally 'living her life' rather than 'waiting to die' - and 'paying it forward' to help others with MS do the same.
'I've put in the hours - in 2021 I started doing any course, any support, I work hard to make myself well. I needed to get better, I needed to be able to engage and accept the MS. I was having dreams of being a blob in a wheelchair - not a person.'
In a couple of articles, we'll be looking at the importance of supported self-management and giving practical ideas of how to encourage patients in their management of MS, all through the lens of Joanne's experiences:
social connection
symptom management
We're so grateful to Joanne for her honesty and openness, and hope these insights and ideas can benefit you and the people with MS you support.
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