If there is something that irritates Dr Laurent Grange, rheumatologist at the Grenoble University Hospital and president of the French Association for the Fight against Rheumatism (Aflar), it is to hear that “Arthrosis is normal, it’s the wear and tear of the cartilage. It’s normal to age and have pain”.
Because the doctor has been fighting for years for this chronic incapacitating disease, which affects 10 million people in France and which is the first cause of disability for people over 40, to be recognized as a major health problem.
“Arthrosis is an epidemic and it is also a scourge”adds Françoise Alliot-Launois, physiotherapist and vice-president of Aflar. “All it takes is one affected joint, such as the knee or the hip, and autonomy plummets”.
This is why Aflar and the National Alliance against osteoarthritis have set up a real communication plan for 3 years so that osteoarthritis be recognized for what it is: a serious illness which is the second reason for consultation with the doctor and which has caused 5 million work stoppages in 10 years.
Why such mobilization?
“It all started with the experience of Allo Rhumatismessays Dr. Grange. We were receiving so many calls from patients in distress, not knowing what to do to stop suffering or who to turn to so that their illness was taken seriously, that we said to ourselves that it was “time to ring the general mobilization“.
And this is how the National Alliance against osteoarthritis was born, whose first action was to give voice to patients in order to photograph the real impact of osteoarthritis on the daily lives of patients.
But for the Alliance, it was only an appetizer. The next step was to organize States General on Osteoarthritis: a series of 10 regional round tables bringing together patients, healthcare professionals and representatives of medical institutions. “We took our pilgrim’s staff for an unprecedented approach” insists Dr. Grange. Each round table produced an inventory and proposals for improvement so that the disease is finally recognized as such and so that the pain of the osteoarthritis patient is taken care of. This resulted in 79 proposals, brought together in a White Paper entitled Let’s fight against osteoarthritis.
79 proposals and 3 lines of action for 2016
Once validated, these 79 proposals were put to the vote on the site www.stop-arthrosis.org to choose the most relevant. More than 4,300 people took part in the vote (90% of them patients) and 21 proposals were approved.
Three lines of action have therefore already been defined for 2016:
- Relieve patient pain : by imagining for example the realization of a pain relief kit which would include advice (gym movements, positions at work) and products to relieve.
- Lead to the recognition of this disease serious: by including osteoarthritis in prevention campaigns in the same way as cardiovascular or diabetes-related diseases.
- Facilitate access to information patients and health professionals: the stop-arthrosis site will be updated and an online solidarity store will direct patients to products that can help them on a daily basis.
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Osteoarthritis and arthritis: what’s the difference?
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