The Partners in Treatment Project

On its inaugural meeting in September 2011, the Agora established a set of 5 objectives to fulfill in the next five years (2011-2016). The Partners in Treatment programme addresses the second of these objectives – “To stimulate the education and training of patients, volunteers, staff and health professionals by creating opportunities to exchange knowledge and experiences and to produce templates for educational materials and programs”. This project is especially dedicated to help people with rheumatic diseases, their carers, friends and family with successful management tools to deal with their disease on a daily basis.

Southern European countries are confronted with significant problems in their health systems, such as a low percentage of early referral, early diagnosis and rapid start of treatment for people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases. One of the most important factors to help reduce the weight of these problems are patient education, well trained health care providers and the existence of a relationship based on constructive communication and cooperation between both parties in treatment.

The Partners in Treatment programme will promote the empowerment of people with early stage rheumatic diseases in communicating with medical professionals they relate to. The Partners in Treatment Guide covers such important topics as ‘What are rheumatic diseases’, ‘Co-morbidity’, ‘Available treatments’, ‘Disease monitoring’, ‘Improving communication’, ‘Stress management’, among others.