S. U. Halland1, L. H. Kamhaug1
1BURG, The Norwegian organisation for children and youth with rheumatism, NRF, The Norwegia Rheumatism Association, Oslo, Norway
Peer support is organised contact between two or several people with like or similar illness, disability or situation. In this abstract we will call the person helping: guide. Objectives Methods Results Conclusions
When you have any kind of disability or challenge in life it’s well known that talking to others who are or, has been, in the same situation, will help you cope with your situation. Through peer support work we can help people focus on their own situation and expand knowledge regarding the disability. We can also help them to adjust to a new way of life and to see new possibilities. Parents who have children and youth with a rheumatic condition will get a lot of help through talking to other parents/youth who have been through the same as themselves.
The objective of peer support for youth and parents is based on the idea that people who have coped with their condition/situation in a good way can use their knowledge and experiences to help others. The barrier for contacting the guides should be low and the guides are trained to help and guide others. The guide must have a rheumatic disease, or be a parent to a child with rheumatic disease, and be motivated. He/she have learned to live with her/his own situation, is secure and has reasonable knowledge of: health-services, adaptation for children with rheumatism in schools and kindergartens, higher education and job-opportunities, and other related areas.
The trained guides can be contacted by phone or e-mail and are situated all over the country. The guide can also follow you to a difficult meeting at school, with healthcare and/or other things. BURG arranges this work especially towards parents and youth and all regions in Norway have at least one parent guide and one youth guide. All together there are about 50-60 guides for youths and parents. The national board of BURG also has one coordinator who can help and guide the other guides. BURG trains the guides every year through a seminar with themes like children’s rights towards health and social care, how to answer difficult questions etc.
People see peer support as an easy way to contact someone who knows how it feels to live with rheumatism. The fact that we have youth and parents who do this is especially important. It is easier to contact someone who can really relate to your situation. Our guides get a lot of phone calls and health professionals’ advice people to call BURG’s guides. There are not many problems towards motivating people to be guides. When they have coped with their own condition for a while many feel like using their experience towards helping others.
Peer support towards youth and children (their parents) is a very important service. A lot of those contacting our guides feel they are all alone with their problems and are often upset. Both users of the service and health professionals are happy about this offer given by BURG and encourage us to expand it. From this we can se that help to self-help helps!