2013 Seasonal Talk –Rheumatoid arthritis and Self-management
15th June 2013
The Second Seasonal talk – Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Self-management was taken part in the Duke of Windsor Social Service Building on 15th June 2013. The talk aimed to enhance people’s understanding of RA and to introduce an Expressive Arts Therapy to patients. There were 124 participants in total.
At the beginning, the talk was conducted by Dr. Amy YUNG, a specialist in Rheumatology, started from explaining the correlation between immune system and joint damaged. Dr. YUNG listed out some symptoms for RA in order to arouse people’s awareness and remind patients the importance of early treatment. Besides, Dr. YUNG suggested patients refer to the Disease Activity Score and its modified version including 28 joint counts (DAS28) as a tool to assess the clinical remission, which is well advantage on providing appropriate medication, treatment and caring of the damaged joints.
Apart from this, the talk was continued by Ms. Fiona CHANG, a registered expressive arts therapist and a registered social worker. Ms. CHANG explained the advantages of the multi-performing arts including self –management skills, and pain-releasing exercises. Ms. CHANG then led the participants doing some exercises to ease the pains and keep the joints limber. The participants showed interested and helpful in this practice.
A patient of RA was invited to share her experiences afterward. The patient shared her condition and difficulties when suffering from RA. She also encouraged other patients being positive to face the problem, which shows much supportive to participants.
The talk then followed by a Q&A session where participants actively asked questions. Dr. YUNG and Ms. CHANG answered with patience to solve their doubts. The audiences found the information from the talk useful and hoped to participate to the activities in the future.
