One of the problems at the moment is that the people who founded these groups, perhaps as much as twenty years ago, are now getting much older, and we are finding it very difficult to get people to come into groups and to take, as we have here, to take over roles, say of chairman or treasurer or secretary. And unfortunately some of our groups are having to close, but others are coming forward and I think the group probably serves a better function, in an area where the National Health work for osteoporosis perhaps is a little thinner on the ground and it is almost as a natural cycle where you have a group in an area where the local provision is not great, that group can encourage, it can lobby, it can work, it can raise awareness and it can encourage these services to be provided by the NHS and in a way the group has perhaps then fulfilled its purpose and its role can be taken over by the NHS, so there is a kind of pattern across the country, of areas where you have very strong groups, able to say, well we have done our job. We can hand over, we’ve got a good service locally, we’re still there, we can still support people, but we haven’t perhaps got that lobbying function that we had initially.
So groups come and go, they fade in and out, but there is still an important role for them to play and some of our groups are absolutely wonderful. They do a fantastic job and they have people full of enthusiasm keeping them going, offering support. We must never, ever think that lay people can give medical advice, but there is a role for support, for people who want to share their experiences with other people who are suffering from the same condition, who know that there is somebody there sympathetic, who understands what they are going through, who can come to us, rather than bother the doctor, to get a leaflet about osteoporosis, to find out what the treatments are, what the latest developments are in osteoporosis research. So the group has an important function to play. It may have to change its, the way it works, it may not be able to function perhaps as regularly as it did when its committees were younger and fitter, but it still has an important role to play.
If you need some support, emotional support, may be when you are in pain or feeling a bit down, who do you get that emotional support from?
The best thing I think or one of the best things that the National Osteoporosis Society has is their telephone help line which is available to members and non members and at the end of the help line there is a team of nurses and speaking from personal experience I have found them sympathetic, warm, very knowledgeable, very encouraging and able to answer just about any question that anybody wishes to fire at them. I really think that the help line is one of the best things that we have to offer. In addition of course a great range of literature available to members and non members but if you want a one to one conversation with a knowledgeable sympathetic person, then the help line is the answer.
