About Don't Delay, Connect Today
In 2017, EULAR launched the Europe-wide campaign entitled ‘Don’t Delay, Connect Today’ with the goal to highlight rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) as major diseases and a public health concern of pandemic proportions, and that early diagnosis and timely access to treatment can prevent further damage and burden on the individual and society.
The campaign targets the public, physicians, health professionals, occupational health therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists and policy-makers.
Why it matters?
They say life is short – so give it your best shot. For many millions of people in Europe the opportunity to design a good life is however severely limited by a chronic disease.
There are over 200 rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases, RMDs. All of them can have debilitating effects on the individual, their life and career prospects, as well as national health care systems.
Approximately 100 million people in Europe are currently diagnosed with an RMD, there are however at least 100 million more who are living without a diagnosis.
EULAR started the campaign, Don’t Delay, Connect Today in 2017 with the purpose of raising awareness around the importance of early diagnosis and access to care – for all.
Don't Delay, Connect Today Life stories
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11-year-old Aran talks about his life living with a rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease |
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Meet Simon Stones who was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, JIA, at the age of three. Today, Simon is undertaking advanced studies at university to obtain a PhD, and speaks about his ability to take action to bring his life onto this track thanks to early diagnosis. Simon believes in the importance of a collaborative approach between doctors, people including young people and their parents to enable successful outcomes for all. |
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Kate Betteridge was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, RA, at age 13. Her family doctor successfully identified symptoms and within eight weeks an accurate diagnosis was made. Early diagnosis enabled Kate to go on to fulfil her dream of becoming a journalist and to integrate the management of RA into her life, rather than letting RA dominate her life and passions |
Watch the "Don't Delay, Connect Today" full video playlist
EULAR PARE Member Organisations' participation
Member organisations of EULAR PARE have taken part in the Don't Delay, Connect Today campaign with a series of activities.
Click the country and scroll down to learn more.
Malta
The Don’t Delay, Connect Today campaign is being implemented in Malta through a series of activities within 2018 culminating on 12 October 2018. The activities will be organised by the Arthritis and Rheumatism Association in Malta (ARAM) in coordination with the Malta College of Family doctors, with Malta Rheumatologist Association, Malta Health Network and Malta Health Allied Professionals.
They will be organised on TV and radio Health programmes and road shows in the villages of Malta to create awareness amongst the general public and patients about the importance of early referral to the doctors on rheumatic diseases. A series of 5 e-learning videos addressing people with RMDs and the public will be produced and also two articles will be written by rheumatologists on the topic in the media.
Malta College of Family Doctors will conduct a short course on Rheumatology in Primary care from September to December 2018. VIPs stakeholders will be involved in the activities like Prof Andrew Borg, Minister of Health – Mr Chris Fearne, Ms Sina Bugeja also from the Ministry of Health.
The aims of the campaign are to empower family doctors to ask for symptoms and listen to patients’ complaints in relation to rheumatic disorders, they need to evaluate all the early clinical signs and symptoms to pick the right patient for early referral.
For more information please contact aramalta (at) gmail.com.
Related Information
EULAR Campaigns
EULAR hosts campaigns to help achieve its goal in the area of Advocacy: to increase participation in work by people with RMDs by the year 2023.
Contact
For more information, contact publicaffairs@eular.org
EULAR PARE sessions at the EULAR European Congress of Rheumatology
A series of scientific programme sessions were held at the EULAR European Congress of Rheumatology around the Campaign Don't delay, Connect Today in order to provide further context to participants.
Join the conversation on social media #dontdelay