World Autoimmune Arthritis Day

Virtual Convention May 20th

World Autoimmune Arthritis Day is a day established specifically to focus on a specialized group of diseases that share both symptoms and treatments.  The goal is to raise awareness about these diseases primarily to the patient themselves and their supporters, but there is also a public awareness component and is open to doctors and researchers to learn more from the patient perspective.  Combined with awareness is the educational resource aspect. There are 16 scheduled Patient-led Presentations, all covering different subjects that were voted on by patients living with Autoimmune Arthritis. In addition there are 5 live Chat Sessions where patients may communicate with others around the world in a controlled environment.  Both Presenters and Chat Hosts are popular leaders in the Autoimmune Arthritis community and represent a variety of diseases.  A Resource Center will be created to allow nonprofits from around the world to create a library of down-loadable resources, or take aways, to help patients and supporters with education and self-awareness on a variety of subjects.  Finally, public awareness, combined with teaching others how to raise awareness through email and Social Media, will be established through WAAMs! (World Autoimmune Arthritis Messages), or Live Call to Action Awareness Posts, where all people around the world can post or send messages of awareness together at the same time. It is established on over a dozen health calendars internationally and will occur as a Virtual Convention annually on May 20th (in all time zones, or 47 hours).

You can’t gain access to the event without registering! And, no, your email address will NOT be given to vendors, sponsors, etc. Register FREE here http://​events.r20.constantcontact.​com/register/​event?llr=0&oeidk=a07e5n7i1​aq5f98d0e9. You should also check out our 2-minute registration video, found here: http://youtu.be/I38vA-fqlik. It’s fun and it’s free! Please share!! And then check out our WAAD site at http://​www.worldautoimmunearthriti​s.org/!

On Demand Presentations

1

Self Esteem – You are Beautiful! Hosted by Kimberly Dansby, Founder and CEO of the Purple Rose Foundation (SLE)

2

Being Your Own Self Advocate – Hosted by Arthritis Ashley (RA)

3

Eye Care with Autoimmune Arthritis Diseases (Adult and Child Uveitis) – Hosted by Tristan Moore, IAAM Volunteer (UCTD)

4

Dental Care with Autoimmune Arthritis Diseases Hosted by Tristan Moore, IAAM Volunteer (UCTD)

5

Fitness and You – Hosted by Personal Trainer and RA Patient, Marie Hilferty (RA)

6

The Autoimmune Arthritis diseases-How are they Related? –Hosted by IAAM Co-Founder Tami Caskey Brown (RA/SS)

7

Coping as a Parent Living with Autoimmune Arthritis (parent and child viewpoints)- Hosted by SqueakyJoints Leaders, Brigid and Peggy (RA)

8

Tips for Supporting Someone Living with Autoimmune Arthritis Hosted by Arthritis Introspective

9

Tips for Parenting a JAer – Hosted by Parent Bloggers Danielle http://emilysarthritisfight.blogspot.com/ and Stacey http://www.lifeautoimmune.com (JA/MCTD)

10

What I CAN Do! -Kristy Long, Founder and CEO of the Dream Institute (JA/RA)

11

Having a Job and Dealing with Autoimmune Arthritis -Hosted by Sarah Clark, Founder of the Young Arthritics of Wellington. Association: Arthritis New Zealand (RA)

12

Maximizing Your Healthy Time –Hosted by Kirsten Walters, Not Standing Still’s Disease (SD)

Live Presentations

Scheduled (1) every 12 hours:

1

Who Am I Now? Learning to Live with Unexpected Disability - Hosted by Tiffany Westrich, Founder and CEO of the International Autoimmune Arthritis Movement (RA/SLE)

2

Intimacy/Dating/Marriage and Autoimmune Arthritis -Hosted by Jenna Dye Visscher of the Feeding Edge. Association: Spondylitis Association of America (AS)

3

Navigating Your Day with Autoimmune Arthritis: Tips to Simplify Your Life -Hosted by Dana Morningstar, Chair of the Young Professionals Group, Arthritis Foundation (PsA)

Chat Sessions

45 minutes long, hosted by Patient Expert. Scheduled every (4) hours.

1.

Being Your Own Self Advocate, Chat Version: Hosted by Marcy Dyer, Facebook Page Host of Gimps and Blogger http://ragimp.blogspot.com/ and Waynette Porter, IAAM Volunteer

2.

Remaining Positive with a Chronic Illness: Hosted by the Positive Pear (AS)

3.

The Holistic Approach: Hosted by Thrive with Lupus

4.

Combating the Myths of Autoimmune Arthritis diseases: Hosted by Cookie Harper, Founder of the Faces of Ankylosing Spondylitis

6 MORE CHAT SESSIONS in process of development.

Please spread the word and join

in this wonderful, learning experience.

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Hi all,

We hope you have noticed some of the new changes to our web site and will continue to visit to see more as we progress into the future. We’d like to let you know that one of the upcoming additions we will be adding is going to be a links section. We hope this will give our visitors links to helpful sites of interest in areas of our illness and related topics.

We thank you for your support of the foundation. Without it we would not be able to help others as is our goal.

Good day,

Staff of the International Still’s Disease Foundation