Freelance Writing Jobs | Today's Articles | sign in

Organizing a Thyroid Disease Support Group

Fellow Patients Sharing Helpful Advice Online or In-Person

Sep 22, 2009 Jim Lowrance

Thyroid patients often relate better to fellow-patients who are going through similar struggles to find effective treatments, symptom relieve and best quality-of-life.

Fellow-patient thyroid disease support groups can offer the opportunity for patients to meet and share advice and personal experiences. The benefits of regular meetings in-person or online can also provide opportunity for helpful, reliable resources to be shared among patients who can refer one another to informative books and helpful online information they have found. Meetings can also open discussions on important thyroid topics members may wish to participate in to help them gain general knowledge about their disease and its treatment.

Publicly Announcing a New Support Group

One effective way to inform the public in one’s own area about the formation of a new thyroid disease support group is to submit an announcement covering the event in a local newspaper. Local media is often helpful with offering free coverage for something that will be helpful to their community. Written coverage for the support group might be submitted as a letter to the editor, for inclusion in that section or as a news story or press release that contains information in regard to the importance for thyroid patients in the area for such a resource to become available.

The announcement submitter might also consider relating a brief personal story within the submission to the newspaper that demonstrates the need patients have in connecting to other patients and to sources of shared information that can help them cope with their disease emotionally. If a newspaper is reluctant to allow free coverage of the event, a paid advertisement might be a consideration. Local radio stations may also agree to inform the public at no charge by airing announcements for the support group. Typing up flyers on a computer and printing them for distribution to bulletin boards and for handing out can also help get the word out.

Support Group Newsletter

The support group director or those appointed to plan meetings may also consider publishing a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter to inform members about times set for meetings and what information will be covered in them. The newsletter publisher might also offer opportunity for members to submit personal stories and/or helpful information from reliable, reputable sources, for consideration of being added into the newsletter. It can also be offered to the local public in-general whether they decide to become eventual members or not. Personal stories, book reviews and covering discussions taking place in meetings can help gain more interest for the support group. A newsletter can be offered through email and/or in print.

Inviting Guest Speakers

Special guests can be invited to make presentations or to give lectures on thyroid disease subjects for the support group. Area doctors that treat thyroid diseases might be interested in making guest appearances to relate helpful information to thyroid patient members. Subjects of interest covered by guest speakers might include those pertaining to the diet practices of thyroid patients, partnering with their doctors, best methods for taking their medications and any other subject of interest for the group, to help better inform them.

Providing an Online Forum

A support group administrator might also choose to create an accompanying forum for members who may wish to communicate between meetings or might actually choose to create the support group as a whole, as an online resource. A forum requires a degree of moderation, so that unwanted posts or spam can be deleted or edited. The forum could also be restricted to those who are members of the support group. A forum can be a great resource of ongoing communication, for added support and shared information.

The forum moderator(s) would also want to put effort into making sure the forum stays on-subject for each topic-category that might be included in the forum and to make sure small offshoots of members are not formed which can sometimes evolve into exclusionary cliques. Any hurtful practices would also need to be addressed such as gossip or posts that degrade into personal attacks. If these types of things are closely moderated, a forum can be an excellent resource for thyroid disease patients and some online hosts make forums available free of charge.

The copyright of the article Organizing a Thyroid Disease Support Group in General Medicine is owned by Jim Lowrance. Permission to republish Organizing a Thyroid Disease Support Group in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Loughborough Support Group