Juvenile Arthritis
Living Well with Arthritis Course
The Living Well with Arthritis Programme is a programme of non-medical interventions,
designed to complement the medical treatment of arthritis with simple but effective techniques. It will enable you to manage and understand the various elements of your arthritis more effectively, helping you to enjoy the everyday again.
This award-winning workshop has been proven around the world to be an important part of the prescription of effective arthritis treatment by decreasing pain, reducing reliance on health professionals and medication and improving the overall sense of wellbeing. In just six weeks you can learn how to manage your condition and make a big difference to your quality of life.
Registration for the latest round of Living Well with Arthritis courses has now closed. Our next round of programmes will run in autumn.
NEW! AN ADDITIONAL PROGRAMME WILL RUN IN OUR LADY'S HOSPICE IN HAROLD CROSS THIS SUMMER, STARTS ON 30TH MAY!
For the autumn courses Register your interest here!
What makes this course different?
Download (PDF) Information leaflet
The main thing that the programme involves is you because you are at the centre of your own arthritis management.
This course will teach you how to deal with the daily challenges that arthritis presents, through a series of simple techniques including:
- cognitive pain-management skills
- coping with fatigue
- planning for set-backs and goal setting
- healthy living and weight management in arthritis
- managing your relationship with your healthcare team
- dealing with negative emotions
- exercise techniques for weak and damaged joints, developed by leading physiotherapists
- understanding your medication
The Living Well with Arthritis programme is taught over a six-week period in weekly two-hour sessions. Each programme usually has 18 people and is led by trained leaders. Most of the leaders have arthritis themselves or are health care professionals. They are all interested in helping people with arthritis, and have successfully completed a 15-18 hour Leader Training Workshop. The programme is available in locations across the country and is designed for anyone over the age of 18.
There is a small fee of €30 to participate in the workshop which covers a small portion of the cost of providing the programme and provides you with The Arthritis Helpbook, an excellent resource written by arthritis specialists Dr. James Fries and Dr. Kate Lorig.
This course is designed to help you to do the things you enjoy doing, with less pain.
Previous participants of the Living well with Arthritis programme reported that it had complemented their medication and made a big difference to their quality of life.
The results of the survey show that on completion participants have:
- Improved their ability to cope with pain by 50%.
- Increased their amount of regular exercise by 72%.
- Improved their attitude towards living with their condition by 63%.
- Increased their knowledge of their condition by 59%.
- Significant reduction in their visits to hospital and their reliance on their GP in relation to their arthritis
What makes this course different?
All of the Living Well with Arthritis courses are delivered by people who have arthritis and are partnered by a health professional working in the area of arthritis management, such as a rheumatology nurse specialist or a physiotherapist. They therefore understand the challenges presented by a chronic condition such as arthritis.
Registration for the latest round of Living Well with Arthritis courses has now closed. Our next round of programmes will run in autumn.
Dr Kate Lorig, Director of the Patient Education Research Centre at Stanford University, California
Let me be clear - this is not support or group therapy. This is a scientifically structured education programme, designed on empirical evidence and has been proven to be an essential part of effective arthritis treatment that actually improves the performance of medication. We see people able to do things that they couldn’t before, related to improvements in mobility and mood, and we see improvements in their quality of life.
Laura, 25, Dublin
Many of the people who have attended a Living Well with Arthritis course will tell you they didn’t require support, myself included. What we did need was the skills to manage living with a chronic illness. Arthritis used to have a hold of me (but) now I truly believe that, while arthritis is unpredictable, I am in a better position to take control of it.
Tim, 45, Kildare
Their programmes are brilliant. People can learn in 6 weeks what it took me 20 years to discover. You can save yourself a whole lot of trial and error by doing one of their courses.
Maeve, 48, Dublin
The course helps in all aspects of living with arthritis. I learned that simple things can make such a huge difference to your life. Being understood, talking to people who understood the pain and the huge changes that living with arthritis makes in your life was just amazing. I felt less crazy; I felt less alone, the isolation was removed. I knew that there was support out there and all of a sudden the world became a different place for me.