Let's Work Together: World Arthritis Day 2009

World Arthritis Day: 12 October 2009

Each year World Arthritis Day focuses on a different aspect of living with a rheumatic disease. World Arthritis Day falls on 12 October, but our campaigns are designed to last throughout the year and beyond.

This year’s ‘Let’s Work Together’ theme considers the challenges of work, be it paid employment, voluntary work or work at home supporting a family, and embraces people with rheumatic diseases, healthcare professionals and employers.

The aims of World Arthritis Day are:

• To raise awareness of arthritis in all its forms among the medical community, people with arthritis and the general public
• To influence public policy by making decision-makers aware of the burden of arthritis and the steps which can be taken to ease it
• To ensure all people with arthritis and their caregivers are aware of the vast support network available to them.

The WorldArthritisDay website is supported and managed by EULAR, the European League Against Rheumatism. At the 2008 EULAR Autumn Conference for People with Arthritis/Rheumatism in Europe (PARE) a Charter for Work for People with Rheumatic Diseases was developed. The Charter for Work was launched in March at the Alliance Against Arthritis (AAA) event in Brussels. To find out more about the Charter for Work click here.

To support our campaign please complete our ‘Let’s Work Together’ survey, which is aimed to gain an understanding of the experiences and perspectives of people with rheumatic disease, employers and healthcare professionals so we can work together to develop positive ways in which these can be improved.

To help generate significant national and European statistics and bring this important discussion to the media we need a maximum number of people in each category to fill out the appropriate survey (minimum of 100 in each section per country)

The survey is available in 12 European languages and has questionnaires for:

1. People with rheumatic diseases
2. Physicians and allied health professionals working with people with rheumatic diseases
3. Employers

Make your national statistics count: Please ask people with rheumatic disease, those that treat them and employers in your country to complete the survey and to encourage their contacts to log on too.

Click here to start the survey in your own language:

If you would like help with work, check out our ‘Let’s Work together’ support materials, which will be launched on World Arthritis Day and available in English to download individually, or as an information pack. The support packs will also be translated in other languages later in the year.

1. Young people who are just starting out in the world of work
2. People who were in work when they were diagnosed
3. People re-entering the work place after rehabilitation

Find out more about our ‘Let’s Work Together’ photographic competition click here.

Campaigning support materials for national organisations representing people with rheumatic diseases can be found in the password protected area of this site. Click here to access the password protected area (coming soon).

Thanks for helping to spread the word and awareness!!